Qatar eyes World Tour slot from next year

BUSINESS | 21 SPORT | 29

QP and Chevron in exploration

deal in Morocco

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has sent a message to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia on fraternal relations and the latest developments in the region and the world. The message was handed over by Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani during his meeting with the King in Riyadh yesterday.

Emir sends message to Saudi King

MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016 • 29 Rabia II 1437 • Volume 20 • Number 6700 thepeninsulaqatar @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatar

DOHA: The Emiri Diwan announced that tomorrow will be an official holi-day to mark National Sport Day, celebrated on Tuesday of February’s second week every year.

The Peninsula

DOHA: With more services of the Ministry of Interior (MoI) now avail-able online, the number of licensed private centres offering these serv-ices to companies and individuals against a fee is on the rise.

Since 2011, the ministry has issued licences to 96 such firms with a view to speed up online transactions for companies and institutions that are interested in availing of their services, the min-istry said yesterday.

A wide range of ministry serv-ices have been offered by these centres mostly to corporate clients,

who opt for their service to avoid the hassles of physically visiting a MoI services centre or going through the procedures of online transactions.

Such centres also help reduce the rush at the ministry’s services centres since the work of many com-pany representatives can be done by a few employees. Another advantage is that the customers can avail of their services even after the minis-try working hours since the services are available online.

These firms have now tied up with Qatar Post to get the documents like ID cards directly delivered to them after completion of the online transactions.

Their services include issuance of visa for company employees, issu-ance, renewal and cancellation of residence permits, exit permits for company employees, issuance of new ID for companies and renewal of company registration number.

They also provide the services related to the Traffic Department including vehicle registration, renewal and transfer of road per-mit, taking vehicles for technical check up, issuance and renewal or driving licence and registration in driving schools.

→Continued on page 5

The Peninsula

DOHA: With introduction of the new Residency Permits, the Ministry of Interior is seeking feedback from the public on the measures being taken in case of the loss or damage of their identity cards.

The ministry yesterday posted the survey link on its twitter

account urging the public to par-ticipate. Some responses from the people are also available on the link, that can be accessed at the ministry website. The survey seeks opinion from the public what do they think about keeping official docu-ments and about people who loose their documents due to neglect.

Do they feel that the authori-ties concerned should take a strict

stance on replacing of lost or dam-aged documents and the fees?

Majority of the respondents spoke against taking strict measures since the documents can be lost due to many reasons while some felt that those losing them due to neglect should be held accountable. Some suggested to make the procedures for issuing new IDs in lieu of the lost or damaged ones simpler and faster.

Reuters

ONCUPINAR, TURKEY/BEIRUT: Aid trucks and ambulances entered Syria from Turkey on Sunday to help tens of thousands of people who have fled an escalating government assault on Aleppo, as air strikes targeted vil-lages on the road linking the city to the Turkish border.

Rebel-held areas in and around Aleppo, Syria’s largest before the war, are still home to 350,000 people, and aid workers have said they could soon fall to the government.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, said air strikes, thought to be from Russian planes, hit villages north of Aleppo on Sunday includ-ing Bashkoy, Haritan and Anadan, the latter two near the road to Turkey.

Russia’s intervention has tipped the balance of the war in favour of President Bashar Al Assad, revers-ing gains the rebels made last year. Advances by the Syrian army and allied militias, including Iranian fighters, are threatening to cut the rebel-held zones of Aleppo off from Turkish supply lines.

“In some parts of Aleppo, the

Assad regime has cut the north-south corridor ... Turkey is under threat,” Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted by the Hurriyet newspa-per as telling reporters on his plane back from a visit to Latin America.

Turkey has given refuge to civil-ians fleeing Syria throughout the conflict, but is coming under grow-ing pressure from the United States to secure the border more tightly, and, from Europe, to stem the onward flow of migrants.It is already sheltering more than 2.5 million Syrians, the world’s largest refugee population.

→See also page 7

Global outrage over N Korea rocket launch

AFP

SEOUL: North Korea hailed an “epochal event” but its latest long-range rocket launch yester-day sparked international anger and plans for talks on a US missile defence system for the peninsula.

Pyongyang’s state T V announced the nation successfully put a satellite into orbit, “legiti-mately exercising the right to use space for independent and peace-ful purposes”.

Many others saw an exercise which clearly defied multiple UN resolutions — a disguised test of a ballistic missile which could one day deliver a warhead as far as the US mainland. The United Nations labelled the launch “deeply deplorable” and Japan termed it “absolutely intolerable”. Even the isolated state’s sole major ally China expressed regret.

The international commu-nity is still struggling to reach agreement on how to respond to Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test -- of what it claimed was a hydrogen bomb — on January 6.

After yesterday’s launch, South Korean and US defence officials announced they would begin for-mal talks on deploying a US missile defence system in South Korea. The US says the highly advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system would be a deterrent necessitated by the North’s advancing ballistic missile programme.

→See also page 9

Turkey delivers aid across border as Syrian forces step up Aleppo assault

By Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

DOHA: Forty-seven four and five star hotels in Qatar are offering free gym and spa access and gym classes, up to 50 percent discount on gym membership, discounted healthy brunch buffets, and special room packages including bed and healthy breakfast in celebration of National Sport Day tomorrow.

This pioneering initiative was a result of agreements between Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) and the hotels which offer gym facilities.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday Saif Al Kuwari, Director of International Cooperation at QTA underscored QTA’s commitment to supporting National Sport Day aimed at promoting healthy lifestyle among citizens and residents.

He thanked all the hotels who have supported the initia-tive making their sports facilities and specialty healthy cuisine more widely available for the duration of their offers.

“The number of hotels partici-pating in this initiative is an evidence of the growth of the hospitality sector especially in the four- and five-star categories. There are now 16,000 rooms being supplied by four- and five-star hotels and they form the majority of 20,000 rooms that are currently available.”

There are now 119 hotels and hotel apartments in Qatar and more to open this year, he said.

Al Kuwari also stressed the QTA’s role as a government arm that that ensures hotels are operating in the highest standards.

“With the launch of the new hotel classification system we have taken another step towards raising the bar for hotels,” he said.

As the various participating hotels are providing different offers, QTA advises residents to check a detailed listing of the hotel deals which it has made available on its website.

Prior reservations are required for all offers from hotels and those interested should contact the hotel directly to make a reservation.

QTA will also be celebrat-ing National Sport Day 2016 with the #QatarInMotion social media campaign.

Residents will be asked to cap-ture their view of Qatar while they are in motion – whether they are jumping rope, jogging, swimming or doing yoga, through videos posted on Twitter or Instagram with the cam-paign’s hashtag.

Abdulrahman Mosallam Al Dosari, Chairman of National Sport Day Committee said National Sport Day is a holiday that people should take seriously by making changes in their lifestyle.

→Continued on page 5

Ministry seeks feedback on ID cards

More private centres provide MoI services

47 star hotels offer discounts on health packages

Refugee tents near Turkish-Syria border in Kilis city, Turkey, yesterday. Turkey is expecting 60,000 more refugees.

Since 2011, the Ministry of Interior has issued licences to 96 firms to speed up online transactions for companies and institutions

Tomorrow is official holiday

An exhibition of memorabilia honouring veteran football players of Al Rayyan Sports Club opened yesterday at Katara Building 22. Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali opened the exhibition ‘Road to Glory’ which showcases the players’ medals, trophies, photographs and personal items. The exhibition is open from 9am to noon and 4pm to 9pm until February 17. Pic: Baher / The Peninsula

Tribute to football players

HOME02 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: A Qatar Development Fund (QDF) delegation visited Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) office in Gaza as part of its official mission to the enclave to review some of the humanitarian projects undertaken by Qatar to improve the living standards of Palestinians in various aspects.

The team of Ali A Al Dabbagh, Executive Director, QDF, and Sultan Alasiri, visited the office to know more about its achievements in the service of the Palestinian people of Gaza.

Dr Akram Nassar, Director, QRCS office, briefed them on key accom-plishments in the fields of healthcare, water and sanitation.

The meeting explored proposed projects to enhance these vital sec-tors to help alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.

Dr Nassar said QRCS has been working in Gaza since 2008, con-ducting almost $100m worth of projects.

Al Dabbagh praised QRCS’s work, stressing the importance of

partnership between QRCS and other Qatari organisations working in Gaza.

Both sides agreed to further pur-sue cooperation to contribute to basic services provided for Palestinians.

QRCS has major humanitarian interventions funded by QDF, under their partnership and QRCS’s role as an auxiliary to Qatar in its humani-tarian efforts locally and abroad.

Among QRCS-QDF projects are the $4m intervention to support the medical sector in Yemen and treat war injuries; the $1m relief pro-gramme on water and sanitation and cholera control for the war-affected communities in South Sudan; and the $10m programme to provide food, shelter, medical aid, drinking water, and health education for the Libyan displaced families in the country.

Qatar Development Fund reviews QRCS projects in Gaza

Officials at a meeting at the QRCS office in Gaza.

The Peninsula

DOHA: A wide variety of sport-ing activities to suit all ages will be held tomorrow by government insti-tutions and private organisations to mark National Sport Day (NSD) 2016.

Aspire Zone, Cultural Village Foundation-Katara and Education City are among the major venues for the celebrations.

Marked on second Tuesday of Feb-ruary every year, the occasion aims to raise awareness among people about sport being vital to healthy living.

FOREIGN MINISTRY

The Foreign Ministry will partic-ipate with sport, social, cultural and recreational activities at the Diplo-matic Club from today.

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said in a statement: “I don’t need to remind that ‘a healthy mind is in a healthy body’ and the role of sport in bringing up a healthy generation in line with Qatar National Vision 2030

which cares for the investment in human resources through the crea-tion of physically and psychologically strong generation.

He stressed that sport is an inter-national physical language that brings together countries and contributes to cultural integration.

“Out of this concept we directed our diplomatic and consular missions abroad to organise events to high-light National Sport Day and convey Qatar’s civilisational message to all communities.”

He referred to close relations between sport and diplomacy and the role of sport as popular diplomacy that complements official diplomacy and enhances relations among states and brotherly and friendly peoples.

He said sports clubs and national teams have always been recognised as an equivalent to diplomatic missions due to the role they play in promot-ing peace between nations.

He cited the visit of the US Ping Pong team to China in 1971, which was the gateway for US president Richard Nixon to visit Beijing and normalise relations once more.

The Minister said FIFA World Cup 2022 will make Qatar an important destination for sports lovers world-wide and act as a diplomatic boost for the country.

QATAR AIRWAYS

Qatar Airways (QA) Group employees, alongside their family members, are gearing up to celebrate NSD at Al Sadd Sports Club tomorrow.

They will take part in competi-tions, including football tournaments,

supported by three of FC Barcelona’s coaches; basketball; cricket and much more. Qatari employees will serve as on-site leaders during the day, help-ing families navigate various activity zones. To create a unique and team atmosphere, employees and their families will also be presented with branded caps and T-shirts on arrival at the club. QA is one of the fastest growing airlines operating one of the youngest fleets in the world.

KAHRAMAA

Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation’s (Kahramaa) events will start with a bicycle ride, led by Minister of Energy and Indus-try H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, Kahramaa President Essa bin Hilal Al Kuwari and other officials.

Several fun-filled sport activities and competitions have been lined up, including ‘Find the Treasure’ race, which is expected to be a major draw.

HMC

The main activities of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) for its staff and their families will be held at Bayt Al Dhiyafah in Hamad Bin Kha-lifa Medical City.

More than 1,000 people will take part in activities, including a walka-thon, starting at 8am from the Nurses Club and the popular mini football tournament at the club.

Staff and their families as well as patients and visitors to Al Wakrah and Al Khor hospitals and the Cuban Hospital will take part in separate

events being organised at the hos-pitals. Activities will be held from 7am to noon at Bayt Al Dhiyafah and other locations. HMC is also joining the Ministry of Public Health and the Primary Health Care Corporation in events at Aspire Park. There will be a 1.5km walkathon which will start from near Aspire Park Lake at 8am as well as free basic health checks and other activities.

UDC

United Development Company (UDC), in collaboration with Qatar Olympic Committee, has planned sporting activities on the picturesque Lido Venezia Beach in the Qanat Quartier precinct at the Pearl-Qatar, from 9am to 4pm

Sport activities include beach volleyball, beach football, basket-ball, table tennis, badminton, fitness classes, outdoor gym, and a des-ignated zone hosting kid-oriented attractions, ensuring that the day is a family-centred occasion.

SAVE THE DREAM

Save the Dream has launched a new social media competition for sport fans to celebrate and win on National Sports Day.

As part of its commitment to empower youth through the values of sport, a photo contest — which will take place on all Save the Dream social media platforms — will give sport fans the opportunity to contrib-ute with their creativity to promoting and preserving values of sport.

Save the Dream, which started

two years ago as a global programme with leading agency Magnum Photos using images to promote sport values, will award best photos with two tick-ets to the Qatar Moto GP taking place at Losail International Circuit from March 17 to 20 and will promote the images through its global platforms.

For a chance to win, fans should tweet or send Facebook photos having fun and playing sport on NSD using the hashtag #savethedream

OOREDOO

Ooredoo will return to Museum of Islamic Art Park (MIA) tomorrow for the third year running to host an all-day event.

The activity-packed schedule has been designed with a focus on get-ting visitors to think about their fitness levels and strength and will include classes, trainers and activities to help the whole community get into shape.

Starting from 8.30am, Ooredoo will hold fitness classes for all ages and levels, including Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, a walking group, gladiator joust, cir-cuit training, football, kayaking and more. To ensure that activities pro-mote benefits of healthy living among participants, Ooredoo has hired pro-fessional sports trainers to teach them exercise skills such as warming-up, which can then be used in everyday life.

ASPIRE ZONE

Venues and facilities at Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF) are ready to receive thousands of participants.

People interested in visiting AZF

can find details of activities on offer through the ‘Life in Aspire’ mobile app, www.aspirezone.qa, or any of AZF’s social media channels.

The programme comprises a wide variety of sport activities to suit all ages, from early in the morning.

Registration is open for the Fun Run at 7am and visitors can take part in a 3K Fun Run around Aspire Zone.

Families will be able to enjoy bikes in Aspire Zone, situated behind the children’s playground area next to the Aspire Dome.

The 5,000-step journey will start at Aspire Park, next to the Burgeri res-taurant. It consists of 12 stations at which participants will receive tips and advice on physical activity and a healthy lifestyle.

Events for men will be held between 8am and noon and will include beach soccer and basketball.

Ladies’ activities between 9am and 10.30am will be at the ladies club and will include Zumba classes.

Activities for children include Judo and football. Between 10am and 4pm the wall- climbing activity will aim to teach participants mountaineer-ing skills under the supervision of licensed instructors on an outdoor climbing wall. The event will take place near the outdoor pitches behind the Grand Heritage hotel.

‘Beat the champion’ is a variety of indoor activities, including a 20-metre sprint to see if people can run as fast as Usain Bolt, a throwing speed test to see if they can match Major League baseball pitchers, a vertical jump to see if they can fly like Michael Jor-dan, and a 200m bike race for friends and family.

By Sachin Kumar

The Peninsula

DOHA: Sale of sports goods have surged in Qatar ahead of National Sports Day. Retail outlets have wit-nessed a rise of up to 30 percent in the sales of sports accessories as the country gears up for National Sports Day.

Aggressive awareness campaigns by the government institutions and private companies have helped in boosting the sales of sports goods.

“Compared to normal days, we have witnessed a rise of 20-30 per-cent in the sale of sports goods in the past week.

“When it comes to sales, foot-ball is undoubtedly the most loved sports in Qatar. Sales of football related items have surged in the last few days,” said Xaviera Evangelista, Sports Coordinator, Olympic Sports, a sports goods retailer in Qatar.

“In order to avoid last day rush,

many companies prefer to give bulk orders well in advance,” she added.

According to the retailers, com-panies gave bulk orders for sports related items. The wholesale orders from companies were mainly for cones, ropes and hurdles.

“Majority of the demand of sports goods is from companies as many companies organise football matches and other events on National Sports Day,” said Hadi Iskandarani, Direc-tor, Galaxy Sport.

“Among individual customers, the demand was for tracksuits, foot wears, T-Shirts, shorts and other sports gears from retail customers,” said Iskandarani.

The government department and companies are running campaigns to encourage people to participate in sport day.

Going by the mood of residents, the National Sport Day celebrations are expected to see huge turnout.

A range of sport activities for all ages is set to be held tomorrow by government institutions and private

organisations to mark the National Sport Day 2016. Aspire Zone, Katara-Cultural Village Foundation and Education City are among the major activity venues for the National Sport Day 2016.

According to the retailers, major buyers of sports accessories were from adults.

“The massive awareness cam-paign is a crucial factor responsible for rise in sales of sports accessories because it has motivated people to participate in National Sport Day,” said branch manager of a sports retail store in West Bay.

“Most of the demand of sports accessories is from adults because children had bought sports accesso-ries in advance,” he said.

Retailers say that the demand of sports accessories is gradually rising every year because of Qatar’s focus on sports.

Apart from the celebration of National Sports Day every year, the football World Cup 2022 has also motivated people to enjoy sports.

National Sport Day activities to suit all agesGovernment institutions and private organisations finalise programmes to make it a family-centred day

Sales of sports goods surge

ahead of National Sport Day

The Peninsula

DOHA: Another cold weather is expected to lash the country at weekend, dipping the mercury to less than 10°C in southern and open areas of the country, said Qatar’s weather Bureau.

The fresh to strong northwest-erly winds will help temperatures decrease again pushing them back to their normal averages with max-imums expected to range between 21-23 °C and minimums between 12-14°C dipping to less than 10°C in southern and open areas of the country. The weather will continue to feel chilly at night and early morn-ing throughout the weekend.

A slight increase in temperatures is expected in Qatar today due to southwesterly winds as Maximums forecast to range between 25-27°C which is considered to be above average by 3-4 degrees.

Weather charts indicate that the country will be affected by an

extension of a ridge of high pressure centered over northwestern Arabian Peninsula from today afternoon until Wednesday accompanied by north-westerly fresh to strong winds. The northwesterly wind speeds expected to peak on Tuesday to range between 15-25 knots with gusts reaching 38 knots over some areas causing off-shore high waves ranging between 8-11 feet reaching 13 feet in some areas with a chance for blowing dust that may reduce visibility to 3km or less in open areas.

On Thursday, winds are expected to become southeasterly light to moderate and warnings will be cancelled temporarily. However, the high pressure is expected to deepen again on Friday accompa-nied by fresh to strong winds as sea warnings resume once again.

The Meteorology Department reminded all to be cautious and avoid venturing into sea during windy conditions. It also urged all to follow latest weather and warn-ing updates through the website and social media accounts.

Another cold spell likely

Indian mission closed

on National Sport Day

DOHA: The Indian embassy will be closed tomorrow to mark National Sport Day, it said in a statement yesterday.

Saudi and UKties reviewedQNA

DOHA: Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti yesterday met Saudi Ambassador Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Aifan and discussed cooperation in the field of trans-portation and communication.

He also met US Undersecre-tary for International Trade Stefan Selig and discussed relations in the fields of transport, communica-tions and information technology.

HOME 03 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: Mansour bin Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, Acting CEO, Qatar Museums (QM), and Engineer Ali Al Khalifa, CEO, ASTAD Project Man-agement, planted the first palm tree inside the gardens of Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani’s Original Palace yesterday.

The palace is now part of National Museum of Qatar, the new award-winning project nearing completion under the supervision of ASTAD.

“We are committed to reflect-ing the full vitality, complexity and diversity of Qatar’s arts and tradi-tions, while partnering and fostering relationships to support the develop-ment of local culture.

“This was the first palm tree plantation for QM and there will be many more, reflecting on the histor-ical support of the local heritage and culture,” said Al Mahmoud.

The palace, built at the end of the 19th century, was the residence and the ruling Seat Palace of Sheikh Abdullah and his family.

It represents an integral part of the new National Museum of Qatar, which will be surrounded by a semi-public park and an artificial lagoon. The decision to preserve

the palace, renovated in the 1970s to serve as the National Museum of Qatar at that time, aims to build the bridge between Qatar’s herit-age and its rapid development and modernisation.

“It is an honour to be taking part in this plantation, and I believe the growth of palm trees will reflect our continued growth and collaboration with QM.

“The National Museum of Qatar

will further build upon the region’s heritage and will prove to be a cul-tural icon within Qatar,” said Al Khalifa.

The ceremony was attended by senior staff and engineers from QM and ASTAD.

The event was the first step towards continual plantation in the perimeter of the National Museum of Qatar as part of the project’s sus-tainable scheme.

The Peninsula

DOHA: For the first time in the Gaza Strip, Qatar Charity (QC) held a signing ceremony of 66 sponsor-ship agreements for proposals that have won the ‘Ibhath Project’ grant.

The ceremony was attended by Ali Al Dabbagh, Executive Director, Qatar Development Fund (QDF), and his delegation in addition to repre-sentatives of universities, research centres, concerned ministries, international organisations, and entrepreneur companies in the Strip.

At a cost of about QR7.4m, the ‘Ibhath Project’ aims to encourage creative research and link them to the market. The project is funded by the GCC Programme for Reconstructing Gaza under the supervision of Islamic Development Bank and implemented by QC.

The winning researchers are distinguished academics and post-graduate students who presented

eco-friendly proposals that had never been implemented before.

Each proposal was concerned with one of the following sectors: Water, environment, agriculture, and veterinary medicine; health, applied and pharmaceutical sciences; basic applied sciences; engineering, industry and energy; computers, and information technology and communications.

The project provides these win-ners with financial and technical support to implement their research.

Engineer Mohammed Abu Haloub, Director, QC’s Office in Gaza, welcomed the delegation from QDF and the audience and congratulated the winners.

“You are most welcome in Gaza. You are the ones who supported the Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza. You have supported them on the political, financial, humanitar-ian and development levels,” said Abu Haloub.

He stressed QC’s commitment to the needs of Palestinians and said

the ‘Ibhath Project’ reflected great progress in the field of humanitar-ian and development work.

He said: “We work on support-ing development and construction, but we also try to build minds and encourage research creativity, hoping that researchers will find solutions for some of the problems faced by Gaza.”

Dr Zeyad Taha, Manager of the project, said the project revived the field of creative research in the Gaza Strip. He said a group of well-known experts in scientific specialisations from outside Gaza had reviewed the proposals thoroughly to choose the best. He said the evaluation process was implemented with maximum commitment from QC, and the 466 research proposals were reviewed with utmost transparency and integrity.

Choosing the winning 66 propos-als came after consultation with 98 highly qualified experts and academ-ics, mostly from the West Bank, the UAE, Germany, the US and Turkey.

First palm tree planted in Sheikh Abdullah’s Palace The palace is now part of National Museum of Qatar, the new award-winning project nearing completion under the supervision of ASTAD

Mansour bin Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, Acting CEO, Qatar Museums (QM), and Engineer Ali Al Khalifa, CEO, ASTAD Project Management, plant the first palm tree inside the gardens of Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani’s Original Palace yesterday.

66 sponsors sign deals under

‘Ibhath Project’ for Gaza

Officials signing one of the sponsorship agreements.

Doha: The Ministry of Economy and Com-merce, in collaboration with Nasser Bin Kha-led Automobiles, dealer of Mercedes Benz vehi-cles, has announced the recall of Mercedes Benz GLC and CLA 2015 mod-els to replace the exhaust camshaft. The ministry urged customers to report any violations to its Con-sumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud Department through hot-line: 16001; email: info@mec.gov.qa; Twitter: @MEC_Qatar; Instagram: MEC_Qatar; and its mobile app for Android and IOS: MEC_Qatar

Directives to finish work on ministry HQDoha: Minister of Munici-pality and Environment H E Mohamed bin Abdul-lah Al Rumaihi yesterday issued directives to com-plete maintenance work on the ministry’s head-quarters on the Corniche within two months. He vis-ited the headquarters and listened to supervisors on work progress. The visit aimed to follow up on the ministry’s projects.

Qatar attends customs meetCairo: Qatar is attedning the 15th meeting of the customs committee on procedures and informa-tion at the Arab League General Secretariat, along with represent-atives of Arab customs departments. Issa Rashid Al Suwaidi, Director of Customs Procedures Unit at General Author-ity of Customs, is leading Qatar’s delegation. The three-day meet will dis-cuss a draft for unified Arab customs procedures guide.

Mercedes-Benz 2015 models recalled

HOME04 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: A’Saffa Foods, Oman’s fastest growing and leading home-grown food producers, will host an Omani food fair in Qatar on February 12 and 13.

A’Saffa Foods Brand Ambas-sador Chef Issa Al Lamki will make his presence at Family Foods Centre and Rayyan out-let on February 12 and Masskar Hypermarket, Maider, on Feb-ruary 13 to reinforce the brand’s ideology of healthy eating and living, stressing the corporate philosophy — ‘Core values of Healthy Food, Health and Hap-piness’ to patrons.

He will also host a live cookery show at both venues showcasing healthy, nutritious and appetizing signature dishes. The show. Omani Dishes with A’Saffa Chicken by celebrity Chef Issa Al Lamki’ will be held at both out-lets from 5pm to 9pm on each day.

A‘Saffa Foods’ mission is to bring consumers 100 percent nat-urally-fed, hygienically-raised, farm-fresh, halal, healthy chicken

and nutritious and healthy value-added processed products that taste great and provide energy for wherever life’s adventures may lead.

A’Saffa’s Foods Farms and plant, Oman’s largest fully inte-grated poultry producer, is in Thumrait, on a 40sqkm area and produces high quality fresh and frozen poultry products. A’Saffa poultry is fed with 100 percent natural fodder (yellow corn and

soya), produced in a sophisticated factory, and slaughtered manu-ally by knife (halal) as per Shariah.

Sidhartha Lenka, Head, Mar-keting & Sales, A’Saffa Foods, S.O.A.G., said: “For the slaugh-tering of our chicken, techniques we use ensure all our birds are slaughtered by hand using a knife, processed in a way that is hygi-enic and ensure the birds are of the highest quality and fit for human consumption.”

A’Saffa Foods to host Omani Food Fair on February 12 and 13

A’Saffa Foods is Oman’s largest fully integrated poultry producer.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Al Rayyan Municipality, including Shee-haniya, issued the highest number of building permits last month, accounting for 37 percent of total permits, according to data released by the Ministry of Develop-ment Planning and Statistics.

The municipality issued 226 permits, followed by Doha Municipality in the second place with 164 permits accounting for 37 percent of total permits.

Al Wakrah Municipality issued 60 permits (10 per-cent), Al Khor Municipality 56 (nine percent), Al Da’ayen Municipality 50 (eight percent), Umm Salal Municipal-ity 44 (seven percent) and Al Shamal Municipality 18 permits (three percent).

Data shows new permits constitute 57 percent (350) of the total permits issued during the month, while addi-tions permits constituted 39 percent (242), and fencing permits four percent (26 permits).

Villas’ permits topped the list, accounting for 79 percent (232 permits) of all new residential buildings permits, followed by dwellings of housing loans at 11 percent (31 permits) and apartment buildings at eight percent (25 permits).

Commercial buildings topped non-residen-tial buildings permits with 40 percent (22 permits), followed by industrial buildings — workshops and factories 29 percent (16 permits), mosques 15 percent (eight permits) and government buildings nine per-cent (five permits).

The ministry worked together the Ministry of Munic-ipality and Environment to prepare data by making use of the existing electronic link between them, said a statement yesterday.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Sheikh Thani Bin Abdul-lah Foundation for Humanitarian Services (RAF) has sent fresh aid com-prising basic food items, blankets and heaters at a cost of QR500,000 to res-cue displaced families in Iraq from cold wave.

Some 1,400 families have bene-fitted. They were forced to leave their homes due to unrest and took shelter in Irbil, Kirkuk and Baghdad.

RAF has distributed 1,400 baskets of basic food items, 4,000 blankets and 1,000 heaters to some 8,500 people.

The initiative was launched in collaboration with RAF’s partner in Iraq ‘AAN Association for Needy peo-ple’ to alleviate the suffering of the displaced people whose number is growing due to escalating conflicts in several governorate, RAF said in a statement.

Each family received a basket containing rice, cereal, beans, sugar, tea, edible oil, pasta and baby milk

— enough for a family for a long time. Two to three blankets were also dis-tributed based on the number of each members. Families of six were given a

heater. RAF conducted a field survey before sending aid to ensure it reaches the most deserving people.

RAF has been providing

humanitarian aid to 97 countries worldwide.

Donation can be made through RAF’s website, SMS system, hotline

55341818 and its collection centres across the country.

Donors can also visit RAF head-quarters with contributions.

RAF helps displaced families in Iraq

Beneficiary families with aid provided by RAF to fight cold wave.

Al Rayyan Municipality

issued 226 building

permits last month

HOME 05MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: The British Council and its partners are invit-ing Gulf-based designers to participate in the Unlimited Doha Design Prize 2016.

The contest offers opportunity to come together with UK counterparts for a week-long design-residency in Doha. It is open to architects, urban designers, engi-neers, 3D designers, technologists and researchers.

Twenty participants – 10 from the Gulf and as many from the UK – will take part in a live one-week design-residency between March 18 and 26.

They will work in teams to research and explore the ‘The Open City’ theme and develop ideas and innovative design solutions to improve the experience of movement and accessibility within the 21st century city.

Under the patronage of H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson, Qatar Muse-ums, and in partnership with the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, the design-residency will give short-listed participants opportunity to work in Doha, one of the youngest and most dynamic cities in the Gulf where the pace of change is creating opportunities to build new communities, public urban spaces and transportation links that will shape the lives of inhabitants in the next decade and beyond.

At the end of the residency, a winning team will be awarded the prize and a grant of £15,000 to further develop the project proposal as a team.

It might include implementation of the project in the form of an exhibition, research project, publication, instal-lation, public intervention or film.

The jury will include international experts, including Brian Timmoney, Foster + Partners, Virginia Newman Director at KSR Architects and RIBA Diversity Ambassa-dor; Tim Makower, Makower Architects; Professor Nick Tyler, CBE FREng, Professor of Civil Engineering, Uni-versity College London; and Abdullah Al Baker, Qatar Engineering Society.

Stephen Stenning, Director of Arts, Middle East and North Africa, British Council, said: “Those who take part will benefit from a chance to develop their creative think-ing within a challenging, vibrant and constantly shifting cityscape and we expect that selected designers will come together to forge new partnerships and share ideas and best practice.

“We hope the prize will not only encourage people to participate, but also think about how they can make the projects they work on in March, a reality going for-ward,” he added.

Said Fatima Mansour, Design Manager, Msheireb Prop-erties, said: “The one-week charette during Old Doha Prize was great, it enabled me to get some hands-on experi-ence at the early stages of the design process, and I had the opportunity to apply my knowledge in a healthy and competitive environment.

“I would encourage young architects to participate in such competitions, as it gives you a challenge and stimu-lates you, something we don’t always get during the daily routine work.”

Applications are open until February 28 and shortlisted applicants will be announced on March 2. For details, please visit http://tinyurl.com/Unlimited-Doha-Design-Prize

Applications invited

for Unlimited Doha

Design Prize 2016

Continued from page 1

He highlighted the enormous health challenges Qatar faces with alarming high obesity rates and rise in lifestyle diseases. “A quarter of youth living in Qatar are obese and suffering from dia-betes. Seventeen percent of adults in Qatar are battling with diabetes.”

“Many people in Qatar don’t take the time to exercise and that’s why we have National Sport Day to remind people that they have to take the time to exercise.”

He said National Sport Day was created to raise awareness of the impor-tance of physical activity and it is the responsibility of private and public sec-tor entities.

“I would like to take this opportu-nity to encourage all public and private entities in Qatar as well as community leaders to ensure that National Sport Day really is taken advantage of in the way the leadership intended to,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Cultural Village Foundation-Katara is organising over 80 entertaining, healthy and sportive

events in celebration of National Sport Day, Ahmad Al Sayed, deputy gen-eral manager for operation in Katara, announced yesterday.

The events which range from marine and aerial activities to games such as basketball, soccer and beach handball will take place at Katara Esplanade and beach. Some companies will also con-duct medical checks and offer health tips.

“Culture and sports are integral parts in everyday life. They are respon-sible for the development of the human mind and body, and have a positive and pivotal role in disseminating profound, sublime, and civilized thinking in the society. From this perception, Katara was keen to diversify the sports and events of the National Sport Day that reached more than 80 events,” said Al Sayed.

He said more than 40 entities and institutions across the State are host-ing the various events targeting all age groups for the celebration under the slo-gan “Be the Champion”.

Continued from page 1

They facilitate fingerprinting for company employees and their families and help companies handle transac-tions related to the Civil Defence Department.

Besides a ministry licence, the firms require a legal authorisation by customers for each service provided to them, a statement posted on the ministry website yes-terday quoted Captain Abdulla Al Mohannadi, Technical Officer, General Directorate of Borders, Passports and Expatriate Affairs, as saying.

The licensed companies provide services as per spe-cific conditions, including full compliance with the laws. regulations and relevant decisions and instructions issued by the directorate or other entities concerned.

“These companies are fully responsible and accounta-ble for the outcomes of their services and for any possible misuse of the system by their officials or staff against the interests of the clients,” said Al Mohannadi.

They are not allowed to process any transaction for others without a legal or official authorization from the person concerned. The client is required to authorize the company to process the application on his behalf.

The firms must display their licence in a visible way in their premises. The ministry has set a number of con-ditions and technical and administrative requirements for these companies, added Al Mohannadi.

A company must have at least three computers, tel-ephone line, fax, Internet connection and the special software to access the online services of the ministry. They must have an archive to save all transactions and documents and must provide enough space for receiv-ing the customers.

The company must subscribe to the e-government system (Hukoomi) and use the postal services for deliv-ering the documents.

Al Mohannadi said the directorate is coordinating with Qatar Postal Corporation for delivery of Qatari IDs for customers for a fee.

Firms require legal nod

by customers for each

service provided to them

Saif Al Kuwari, Director (right), International Cooperation, QTA, and Abdulrahman Mosallam Al Dosari, Chairman, National Sport Day Committee, at the press conference yesterday.

Quarter ‘of youth obese and diabetic’

HOME06 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: Stenden University Qatar (SU-Q) has announced that Dr Ivan Ninov (pictured) has been appointed as Executive Dean effective January 17.

He was selected after an exten-sive international search and is joining SU-Q from the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management in Dubai, where he was an assistant dean.

Dr Ninov brings extensive industry and academic knowledge, combined with successful interna-tional and regional experience.

He holds a PhD degree in hospi-tality administration from Texas Tech University in the US, and a Master of Science degree in restaurant, hotel and institutional management from

the same university. At the academy, he was respon-

sible for developing the Institutional Effectiveness Programme to ensure the highest quality in all areas of the university.

The programme was recognised as exemplary by the UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and external audits.

Dr Ninov was also involved in daily operations of the university and was in charge of directing and man-aging the MBA programme.

During his welcoming ceremony, he said: “I am grateful to the Board of SU-Q for entrusting me with the lead-ership of this institution and I will do my best to continue and initiate efforts towards making the university one of the premier higher education providers of hospitality management, tourism management, and business management education on a regional and international level.

“SU-Q is very well situated to give our students great opportunities for learning, and our location in Doha and the GCC region is vital to our identity and our success as a school”.

SU-Q appoints new executive dean

The Peninsula

DOHA: Honda Qatar Facebook page has reached a major milestone with 100,000 fans.

Keeping in line with Domas-co’s philosophy, the page had been created to promote customer engage-ment and attract as many Honda fans as possible in Qatar.

Faisal Sharif, Managing Direc-tor, Domasco, said: “The launch of the page was an integral part of our strategy to create a new way of inter-acting with Honda clientele, promote customer engagement and build an active brand community.

“Since its commencement, the page has generated significant online interaction and succeeded in creating a two-way communication channel with our fans online.”

The page is being consistently monitored by Domasco’s professional team which always listens to fans and provide them with content to maxim-ise their engagement with the brand.

Interesting online content and visually appealing photos cover key insights, which allow the brand to reach across to a wider audience.

The page highlights information on Honda innovations and products, including cars, motorbikes, marine and power products and racing. Reg-ular contests with amazing giveaways and information about latest offers are also featured on the page.

Honda ensures that the engage-ment is not restricted to the online space, and makes efforts to trans-late them to the offline arena. To bring together the online commu-nity, Domasco organises special events and in-store celebrations that

have traditionally witnessed a high attendance.

Greig Roffey, Head, Sales and Marketing, Domasco Honda, said: “We are very happy to have reached such an important milestone and this is just the beginning of our efforts to provide our fans with a true ‘Honda Experience’ and look forward to fur-ther expanding our fan base on our page.

“As part of our strategy, we con-stantly interact with fans, providing them with exclusive benefits for being part of the Honda brand community. We encourage Honda customers and fans to join our page and stay con-nected with us.”

Honda Qatar Facebook page celebrates 100,000 fans

The Peninsula

DOHA: The impact of recent political developments in regional diplomatic relations was the focus of a Center for International and Regional Stud-ies (CIRS) Monthly Dialogue public lecture ‘The US-Saudi Arabia Rela-tionship: ‘Special’ or Broken?.

It was delivered by Middle East scholar Dr Michael C Hudson

(pictured) at the Georgetown Uni-versity in Qatar (GU-Q) campus.

“The Middle East is in a turbu-lent condition. And that condition means that traditional alliance pat-terns and US foreign policy should be re-thought and re-examined,” said Dr Hudson, also Seif Ghobash Pro-fessor of International Relations and Arab Studies, Emeritus, at Georget-own University in Washington, DC.

Launching into a review of his-torical roots of bilateral relations that have traditionally been based on mutual benefits of the oil industry, he argued that the lifting of sanctions on Iran, plunging energy prices, regional security issues and budgetary con-straints and rising unemployment in the kingdom, have introduced new challenges to the relationship today.

“The concern is over how the strategy to re-establish stability and a rebalance of regional powers is being executed.

“That’s why the special rela-tionship is no longer special,” he explained, noting GCC countries’ stance on Iran and their role in the

war in Yemen. He said while the for-eign policy trajectories for the two countries were increasingly at odds, shared regional interests still insured positive future relations.

“Even with doubts over Saudi, the US can’t afford to lose them. There’s continuity there — the long relation-ship with the US military and their counterparts in the region, continu-ing American presence in the Middle East remains very substantial,” he concluded.

Dr Mehran Kamrava, Director, CIRS, said: “It was an honour to host a scholar of Dr Hudson’s stature for the first CIRS Monthly Dialogue lec-ture of the semester.

“Dr Hudson has long been a keen observer of US foreign policy in the Middle East and of Saudi Arabia, and his analysis of subtle but significant changes in US-Saudi relations are perceptive and timely.”

Dr Hudson is a former director of Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

From 2010 to 2014, he was the first director of the Middle East

Institute and professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.

He was also the Kuwait Founda-tion visiting scholar at the Harvard Belfer Center’s Middle East Initiative in Spring 2015.

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Doha Institute for Grad-uates Studies is to start receiving students’ applications for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS).

It is an inter-disciplinary research and study centre that conducts orig-inal and rigorous research from conflicts, humanitarian crises, state fragility and war to peace transitions in the Middle East and North Africa.

Applications are open for Fall 2016 enrolment for CHS’ flagship teaching programme — Master in Conflict Management and Human-itarian Actions (CMHA).

The deadline is March 31.Applicants will have until April 28

to submit TOEFL or IELTS results. The

institute offers attractive scholarship opportunities for accepted applicants.

The programme offers students opportunity to engage with sub-jects, including conflict resolution; humanitarianism; peace-building; state-building; and reconstruction theories and practices, from regional and international perspectives.

The two-year programme is structured to bridge the fields of academia and practice by incorpo-rating a field visit to a post-conflict region and an optional professional work placement.

CHS is being designed and devel-oped by an international team, led by Professor Sultan Barakat, a leading expert in the field of post-war recov-ery, at the University of York.

The team has worked in consul-tation organisations, including Qatar

Red Crescent Society, Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Overseas Develop-ment Institute’s Humanitarian Policy Group and Humanitarian Forum.

Prof Barakat said: “With its focus on conflict-affected and frag-ile contexts, CHS is a much needed opportunity to develop region-ally rooted knowledge at a time when the Arab world continues to struggle with creating just and stable societies, enjoying sustain-able political, economic and social development.”

The primary teaching and research language is Arabic at the institute.

However, prospective students are expected to have an excellent command of English to make best use of international opportunities offered by CHS and its partners.

CIRS Monthly Dialogue public lecture highlights the impact of recent political developments in regional diplomatic relations

Scholar reviews US-Saudi tiesThe Peninsula

DOHA: The seventh edition of Qatar International Food Festival will be extended to seven days and expanded to more locations, Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) and Qatar Airways (QA) announced yesterday.

With the theme ‘A Different Side of Food’, the annual culinary event will be held from March 22 to 28 at Museum of Islamic Art Park in addi-tion to satellite festival experiences at other landmarks and eater-ies, including the Pearl-Qatar and Katara Cultural Village.

Chinese food lovers will also have plenty to look forward to, with Chinese cuisine featuring as part of Qatar-China 2016 Year of Culture celebrations.

“The festival is an important part of QTA’s strategy to grow and diver-sify the country’s tourism offering in partnership with the private sector,” said Rashed Al Qurese, Chief Mar-keting and Promotion Officer, QTA.

“The festival showcases our country-wide five-star culinary and hospitality offerings, giving visitors a taste of the most authen-tic experiences. We look forward to welcoming residents and visitors to the festival.”

Salam Al Shawa, Senior Vice- President, Marketing and Corporate Communications, QA, said: “The festival has proven to be one of the most popular city-based events in the world, and QA is pleased to join with QTA to create an experience for residents. We are very proud of our role in bringing the world to Doha to taste the country’s finest culinary and cultural offerings.”

Participants can look forward to the return of the festival’s signa-ture events, including QA’s Dinner in the Sky and Cooking Theatre featur-ing celebrity chefs from Doha and around the world.

The festival will offer new expe-riences, designed for the whole family.

Last year, it attracted about 170,000 visitors during its five days.

Institute invites applications for master’s course

Qatar International Food Festival extended to seven days

GULF / MIDDLE EAST 07MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Tunisian Defence Minister Farhat Horchani (left) walks near the frontier with Libya in Sabkeht Alyun, Tunisia. The north African country has completed a 200-km barrier along its frontier with Libya to try to keep out Islamist militants, and will soon install electronic monitoring systems.

Frontier call

UAE says ready to send ground troops to Syria

Reuters

ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said yesterday it was ready to supply ground troops to help support and train an international military coali-tion against Islamic State in Syria provided such efforts were led by the United States.

Asked whether the UAE could be expected to send ground troops to Syria, and if so under what circumstances, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said: “I think that this has been our position through-out ... that a real campaign against Daesh has to include ground elements,” he said, referring to Islamic State’s name using the Arabic acronym.

Saudi Arabia, one of several Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states, including the UAE, who are opposed to Islamic State, said last week it was ready to partici-pate in any ground operations in

Syria if the US-led coalition fight-ing Islamic State militants decided to start such operations.

Gargash said that any poten-tial supply of troops would not be particularly large.

“We are not talking about a thousand troops but we are talk-ing about troops on the ground that will lead the way, that will train, that will support ... And I think our position remains the same and we will have to see how this progresses.” “Of course an American leadership in this effort is a pre-requisite,” Gar-gash said.

He added that the UAE had been frustrated at the slow pace of the international efforts against Islamic State “although there has been some progress in Iraq recently, of confronting Daesh.”

Gargash said the UAE had always stated there also needed to be a “genuine political process in Baghdad that will encompass the Sunnis” in Iraq, which has a Shia-led government.

Following Saudi Arabia’s announcement, Syria’s foreign minister said on Saturday Damas-cus would resist any ground incursion into its territory and send the aggressors home “in coffins”.

Saudi Arabia and most other Gulf states are opposed to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

Russian and Syrian govern-ment forces have intensified an assault on rebel-held areas around the Syrian city of Aleppo.

An aid truck enters Syria from Turkey at the Oncupinar border crossing in the southeastern Turkish city of Kilis yesterday.

Turkey won’t abandon Syrian refugees: MinisterAFP

ONCUPINAR: Turkey said yester-day it would not abandon thousands of Syrians stranded on its border after fleeing a major Russian-backed regime offensive, as aid agencies warned of a “desperate” situation.

Tens of thousands of people, including many women and children, have been uprooted as pro-government forces backed by intense Russian anti-rebel air strikes advance near Syria’s second city Aleppo.

“Turkey has reached the limit of its capacity to absorb the refugees,” Dep-uty Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told CNN Turk television.

“But in the end, these people have nowhere else to go. Either they will die beneath the bombings... or we will open our borders.”

“We are not in a position to tell them not to come. If we do, we would be abandoning them to their deaths.”

Turkey’s Oncupinar border cross-ing, which faces the Bab Al Salama frontier post inside Syria, remained closed yesterday to thousands of ref-ugees gathered there for a third day,

an AFP reporter said. They waited des-perately for the moment the gate will open, as Turkish aid trucks delivered food inside Syria.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that Turkey was ready to open its gates to Syrian refugees “if necessary”.

Carrying what few belongings they still have, Syrians queued in the cold and rain in squalid camps near the bor-der, waiting for tents being distributed by aid agencies.

Others are reportedly sleeping in the open, in fields and on roads.

The medical aid agency Doctors

Without Borders (MSF) said camps for displaced people in northern Aleppo province were overwhelmed.

“From what MSF can see the situa-tion in Azaz district is desperate, with ongoing fighting and tens of thousands of people displaced,” said Muskilda Zancada, head of the group’s Syria mission.

“We are still conducting assess-ments but so far have seen problems with lack of space to accommodate people, and insufficient water and sanitation in many areas.” It said three MSF-supported hospitals had been bombed in recent days.

Emirates minister says potential supply of boots on ground should be led by US and would be small

Air strike on Libya

hospital kills four,

including child

AFP

BENGHAZI: An air strike hit a hospital in Derna in eastern Libya yesterday, killing four people including a woman and her child and two anti-government fighters, a doctor said.

“There are four dead — a nurse, her 10-year-old son and two members of the Shura Council,” radiologist Dr Mohamad Al Jed-dayimi at Al Wehda hospital said.

In its own statement, the Mujahedeen Shura Council said the attack was in the area of the Faculty of Medical Technology Sci-ence in the Bab Tobruk district of eastern Derna came at 0400 GMT.

The Mujahedeen Shura Council of Derna is a coalition of Islamist militias in the city. It was formed to oppose forces of the controver-sial General Khalifa Haftar, head of forces loyal to the internationally recognised authorities based in the east. Jeddayimi said the nurse and her son were killed in a direct hit on Al Wehda hospital’s urology department, adding that the unit was “completely destroyed”.

The hospital is near the medi-cal faculty in Bab Tobruk.

No claim of responsibility has been made, and forces loyal to the recognised government did not report any air strike in the area yesterday.

Four militants shot dead near CairoReuters

CAIRO: Egyptian police shot dead four suspected Islamist militants inside a house a few miles from cen-tral Cairo, the Interior Ministry said yesterday, the third such incident in as many weeks.

It said the men belonged to Ajnad Misr, a group that emerged in January

2014 and has targeted security forces in and around Cairo. The suspects had opened fire first, it said.

“Engagement resulted in the death of four known elements and the uncovering of an assault rifle, a 9mm pistol, an improvised firearm, a car previously used in many terror-ist attacks, and a motorcycle without licence plates,” a ministry statement said.

The men were suspects in the

killing of two policemen, a soldier and a civilian and they were also sus-pected of blowing up a police vehicle and bombing a security checkpoint, it said.

Egypt is fighting an Islam-ist insurgency in Sinai that gained momentum in mid-2013 when the military ousted Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Mursi after mass protests against his rule. Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed.

Palestinian members of the Dawaween music band play traditional oriental songs during a musical heritage concert in Gaza City on Saturday. The Dawaween music band, founded three months ago by three musicians, now counts more than 40 members.

Joining the bandwagon

GULF / MIDDLE EAST08 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Algerian parliamentary group leaders listen to the national anthem during a vote on a package of constitutional reforms in the capital Algiers yesterday.

Algeria parliament adopts constitutional reforms

AFP

ALGIERS: Algeria’s parliament adopted a package of constitutional reforms yesterday that authorities say will strengthen democracy, but opponents doubt it will bring real change.

The reforms are meant to address longstanding public griev-ances in the North African nation, and possibly to prepare for a smooth transition amid concerns over the health of 78-year-old President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The package was passed by 499 votes to two, with 16 abstentions, Senate speaker Abdelkader Ben-salah said.

A two-term limit on the pres-idency — lifted in 2008 to allow Bouteflika to run for a third time — will be reintroduced and the pres-ident will be required to nominate a prime minister from the largest party in parliament.

Bouteflika — whose public engagements have become rare since suffering a stroke in 2013 — will be allowed to finish his fourth term, which ends in 2019, and run for a fifth if he wishes.

The package also prevents Algerians with dual national-ity from running for high posts in public office, which has sparked criticism among the Franco-Alge-rian community.

It foresees the creation of an independent electoral commis-sion and recognition of the roles of women and youth. Freedoms of assembly and the press will be explicitly guaranteed.

The Amazigh language spoken by the indigenous Berber population will also be recognised as official, alongside Arabic.

After the vote, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal hailed the pres-ident as “the architect of the new Algerian republic”.

But critics disagree, saying the reforms are little more than a show and will do little to reduce the influ-ence of the powerful elite, including Bouteflika’s National Liberation Front party and army generals.

Former lawmaker and regime opponent Djamel Zenati said that “with the current revision, our country’s constitution finally brings together the main elements neces-sary to build a democracy”.

But as “violating laws has become the law” in Algeria, it is hard to believe those in power are being even “the slightest bit sincere”, he wrote in El Watan newspaper.

Former prime minister Ali Benf-lis, who was Bouteflika’s rival in the 2014 presidential polls, slammed the reforms as a “constitutional power grab” to “solve only the regime’s — not the country’s — problems”.

The president and his support-ers have moved in recent months to take control of the security services, dissolving the powerful Department

of Intelligence and Security and jail-ing or sidelining top officials.

Bouteflika and his inner cir-cle have held a firm grip on power since 1999 and, as the end of his rule appears to close in, there are fears of instability in the mainly Muslim country of 40 million, a key energy producer.

“This project crowns the process of political reforms promised by the head

of state,” Sellal told parliamentarians. The reforms guaranteed “dem-

ocratic change by means of free elections” and were “a bulwark against the vagaries of political change,” he said, referring to parts of the constitu-tion that cannot be altered if Islamists form a majority.

Unlike many countries in the region, including its neighbours Libya and Tunisia, Algeria has been

relatively stable since the 2011 Arab Spring.

But it is facing a range of chal-lenges, including regular jihadist attacks, sporadic outbreaks of violence between Berbers and Arabs, and a pre-cipitous drop in state revenues as oil prices have plummeted as a result of global supply glut.

The High Council of the Amazigh affairs (HCA), set up in 1995 to promote

teaching the Berber tongue in public schools, has welcomed the Berber lan-guage becoming official.

It will allow “the state to dedicate more means and measures to make up for shortcomings”, HCA secretary-gen-eral Si El Hachemi Assad said.

Around a fourth of Algerians speak regional variants of Amazigh, but less than 3 percent of students learn it at school, the HCA says.

When this Gaza travel agency did robust businessReuters

GAZA: Nabil Shurafa’s travel agency in Gaza was once packed with clients booking flights to London, Paris, New York or cities across the Arab world. These days, he’s lucky if anyone comes in, as so few people can get out.

The posters of the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and a map of the world look out of place on the walls, given the sense of isolation that per-vades Gaza, a narrow strip of land hemmed in by Israel on two sides, Egypt to the south and the blockaded Mediterranean to the west.

“Once borders are closed, things switch off,” said Shurafa with a sense of resignation. A plastic model of a passenger plane stands on his desk, next to the silent phones.

When Shurafa’s father opened the bureau in 1952, it quickly earned a reputation as a helpful and relia-ble agency.

Back then, Gaza was governed by Egypt and there was not much of

a border to speak of. Gazans could book a plane ticket and take a four-hour bus or train to Cairo to catch their flight.

The agency had a close relation-ship with BOAC, the forerunner of British Airways, and Air France and is general sale agent for each. It remains a member of IATA, the International Air Transport Association.

“The era from 1952 to 1967 was a golden one,” Shurafa, 53, said. People used to travel to Gaza as well, at least until the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel captured Gaza from Egypt and the West Bank from Jordan.

“Gaza was like a duty-free zone, with Egyptians coming to buy goods brought by merchants from Lebanon,” he recalled. There was also a boom in the late 1990s, after the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Pal-estinians, and Gaza opened Yasser Arafat International Airport in 1998.

But the years since have seen a steady decline in business as Gaza has become more and more cut off from the world.

When the second Palestinian

uprising erupted in 2000, the air-port’s runway and control tower were bombed by Israel and it remains in ruins.

Since 2007, when the Islam-ist group Hamas seized control of the territory following a brief civil war with the Western-backed Fatah movement, entry to and exit from Gaza have become even more restricted, both by Egypt and by Israel.

Israel does allow around 1,000 Gazans to cross into its territory every day, for work, medical treatment or other humanitarian reasons. But it is a far cry from the thousands that could pass through the vast border terminal Israel built in the mid-2000s, before Hamas took over.

Egypt meanwhile has kept its crossing with Gaza mostly closed over the past five years, citing secu-rity concerns and to put the squeeze on Hamas. Human rights groups say 95 percent of Gaza’s 1.95 million peo-ple cannot get out of the enclave.

Even those that are able to cross into Israel cannot easily travel from there. They need special dispensation

to fly out of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion air-port or to travel to the West Bank and on to Jordan to catch a flight. Jordan, too, has started restricting visas for Palestinians from Gaza.

Every few months, Egypt lets around 3,000 Gazans leave via Rafah,

but the arrangements are a lottery. The crossing stays open only for two or three days, so no one can be sure they will get across. They call Shurafa once they are over the border and the agency then scrambles to book them flights or hotels.

Arrested former

BBC journalist

in Tehran’s

Evin prison

Reuters

DUBAI: The family of an Iranian-British former BBC journalist who was detained last week in Tehran were told yesterday that he was in the capital’s Evin prison, a friend told Reuters.

Bahman Daroshafaei, 34, a translator and former BBC Persian service reporter, was detained on Wednesday at his home, according to the opposition website Kaleme.com.

“His family went to Evin prison today. They managed to talk to someone on the phone who said Bahman was in Evin but he would not be able to contact his family for another week or so,” said the friend, who was in direct touch with the family but declined to be named.

Daroshafaei’s family said they had not been informed what the charges against him might be.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in London on Thursday that he did not know about the case.

Some opposition activists have suggested that Darosha-faei’s arrest, on the eve of the first visit to Britain by an Iranian for-eign minister in 12 years, might have been orchestrated by hard-liners to thwart an improvement in relations as Iran emerges from international isolation under the moderate government of President Hassan Rowhani.

After living in London for sev-eral years, Daroshafaei returned to Iran in 2014 to be near his family.

His friend said six plain-clothed officers had arrested Daroshafaei at his home and con-fiscated his computer, hard drives and mobile phone.

A few of Daroshafaei’s friends in Tehran and London said they had received messages on social media in the last few days pur-porting to come from him. One said that she had been hacked after clicking on a link she received from Daroshafaei’s account.

Britain reopened its embassy in Tehran last year after Iran agreed with world powers to curb its nuclear programme in return for a lifting of sanctions.

Reuters

RIYADH: The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia yesterday called on other countries not to interfere in the kingdom’s internal affairs in what appeared to be a rebuke to Riyadh’s main foe Iran, which it accuses of attempting to stir unrest.

“It is our right to defend ourselves, without interfer-ing in the affairs of others. We call on others to not interfere in our affairs,” King Salman said in a speech opening the annual Janadriya cultural festival in Riyadh, state news agency SPA reported.

“We cooperate with our Arab and Muslim brothers

in all areas in defending our lands and ensuring their independence and guarding their government systems as sanctioned by their peo-ples,” he added.

King Salman did not elaborate, but his remarks seemed aimed at Iran, which Riyadh accuses of destabilising Arab states and spreading sectarianism by backing militias in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen and fomenting unrest in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Iran denies seeking to destabilise the region or inciting sectarian hatred. It in turn accuses Riyadh of fomenting discord by back-ing rebels in Syria.

The Saudi King brought together a coalition of Arab states to back military action in Yemen to restore its government.

Don’t interfere in our

affairs: Saudi King

Palestinian travel agent Nabil Shurafa (left) gestures as he works at his office in Gaza City.

Two-term limit for presidency to be brought back, but President Bouteflika will be allowed to contest for fifth term

ASIA / PHILIPPINES 09MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

AFP

MANILA: The Philippines’ raucous democracy cranks into top gear this week as campaigning begins for national elections, with familiar themes of corruption, dictatorship and celebrity star-power to dominate.

The three-month campaign begins tomorrow with most interest on a crowded contest to succeed Pres-ident Benigno Aquino, who has won global applause for six years of strong economic growth and a bruising anti-graft campaign.

There are myriad other sub-plots, including a bid by dead dictator Fer-dinand Marcos’s son to take the vice presidency and eight-time world box-ing champion Manny Pacquiao’s run for a Senate seat.

The jailhouse campaigns of two politicians charged with murder who are running in local mayoral elections, as well as graft-tainted ex-president Gloria Arroyo’s run for a third term as congresswoman while behind bars, fuel a sizzling political atmosphere of chaos and chicanery.

There are four major contenders in the battle to move into the pres-idential palace and most analysts predict the deciding factors will — as

usual — be name recognition and cha-risma rather than ideology or policy.

“In the Philippines, elections are like a circus with the candidates try-ing to attract attention with their performances,” Earl Parreno, an ana-lyst at the Manila-based Institute for Political and Economic Reform, said. “Programmes and policies are sec-ondary... it’s a personality contest.”

Aquino won in a landslide six years ago largely due to the popularity of his parents, who led the democracy movement that saw Marcos flee into US exile in 1986. Aquino, 56, is still relatively popular but the constitu-tion limits him to a single term.

His preferred successor is US-edu-cated investment banker Mar Roxas, a trusted ally with many years governing experience who is vowing to continue the pair’s “straight path” agenda of steady reforms and fighting graft.

But Roxas, 58, is trailing in polls and analysts say he has a huge task to ignite an electorate that generally per-ceives him as having little charisma. “He is dry, he can’t connect to ordi-nary people,” Parreno said.

In contrast is Jejomar Binay, 73, a natural campaigner who grew up in poverty but rose to become one of the nation’s most powerful politicians.

Binay heads the main opposition party and is the current vice-presi-dent — the nation’s two top posts are elected separately in the Philippines — but he has had to endure a barrage of corruption allegations.

A Senate committee recently rec-ommended Binay be charged with graft for kickbacks allegedly taken during his long stint as mayor of the nation’s financial capital, Makati.

Binay denies the allegations, insisting they are part of a smear campaign by his opponents and that his family’s new riches have been earned legitimately. Meanwhile, he has sought via slick TV and Internet

video clips to portray himself as the man of the poor.

Another top contender for the presidency is Grace Poe, 47, the adopted daughter of a dead movie star whose success so far can largely be attributed to her father’s endur-ing popularity. However the Supreme Court could knock her out of the race before the May 9 elections, with jus-tices currently listening to arguments she is ineligible based on citizenship and residency laws.

The constitution requires presi-dents have Filipino parents. But Poe does not know who her biological par-ents are. Complicating matters, she lived in the United States for many years and took US citizenship before renouncing it. Binay and Poe have over recent months swapped top spot in popularity surveys. The latest poll, released on Saturday, showed Poe edging back ahead by a small margin.

The wildcard contender is Rod-rigo Duterte, 70, a controversial figure nicknamed “The Punisher” for his ruthless but successful tactics fight-ing crime as mayor of Davao, a major southern city.

Human rights groups have accused Duterte of running vigilante “death squads” that killed suspected criminals. Duterte has denied lead-ing death squads but gave a speech late last year in which he bragged about killing drug traffickers. His vows to clean up crime and end cor-ruption in the nation of 100 million people have won him many fans, both rich and poor.

Meanwhile, Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, the son of the dead dictator, has a strong chance to become the Phil-ippines’ next vice president, currently in second place in polling.

His father and mother, Imelda, are accused of plundering billions of dol-lars from state coffers and overseeing widespread human rights abuses.

Philippines’ raucous election season gets under way

This combo file picture shows from top (left to right) Jejomar Binay and his running mate Senator Gringo Honasan; the adopted daughter of a late movie star, Senator Grace Poe, and her running mate Senator Chiz Escudero; (bottom left to right) current President Benigno Aquino’s preferred successor and US-educated investment banker, Mar Roxas, and his running mate Congresswoman Leni Robredo; and late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’s son and vice-presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos with his mother and former first lady Imelda Marcos.

The three-month campaign begins tomorrow with most interest on a crowded contest to succeed President Benigno Aquino

AFP

SEOUL: North Korea said yesterday that it had successfully put a satellite into orbit, with a rocket launch widely condemned as another defiant step towards a missile capable of striking the US mainland.

The launch, which violated mul-tiple UN resolutions, amounted to the North doubling down against an international community already struggling to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear test barely a month ago.

There was no immediate external confirmation that the final stage of the satellite-bearing rocket had success-fully achieved orbit, although the US Strategic Command said it had tracked “the missile launch into space”.

In a special state TV broadcast, a female North Korean announcer, wearing a traditional Korean hanbok dress, hailed the “epochal” launch, personally ordered by leader Kim Jong-Un, as a major success.

While stressing North Korea’s right to the “peaceful and independent” use of space, she also noted that it marked a breakthrough in boosting national “defence capability”.

Condemnation was swift, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon calling the launch “deeply deplorable” and US Secretary of State John Kerry denouncing a “fla-grant violation” of UN resolutions.

Permanent Security Council mem-bers Britain, France and Russia all expressed anger and concern, while North Korea’s main diplomatic pro-tector China voiced “regret”.

The rocket, carrying an Earth observation satellite, blasted off at around 9am Pyongyang time (0030 GMT) and, according to state TV, achieved orbit 10 minutes later.

Both South Korea and Japan had threatened to shoot it down if it encroached on their territory.

Multiple UN Security Council resolutions proscribe North Korea’s development of its ballistic missile programme, and its rockets are con-sidered dual-use technology with both civil and military applications.

The United States and its allies had warned Pyongyang it would pay a heavy price for pushing ahead with the launch, but analysts said the North’s timing was intended to minimise the repercussions.

“North Korea likely calculates

that a launch so soon after the nuclear test will probably only incrementally affect the UN sanctions arising from that test,” said Alison Evans, a senior analyst at IHS Jane’s.

China has been resisting the US-led effort to tighten the economic screws on its maverick neighbour.

While infuriated by North Korea’s refusal to curb its nuclear ambitions, China’s overriding concern is avoiding a collapse of the regime in Pyongyang and the possibility of a US-allied uni-fied Korea on its border.

North Korea last launched a long-range rocket in December 2012, placing a similar Earth observation satellite in orbit. Western intelligence experts say that satellite has never functioned properly, fuelling suspi-cion of the mission’s scientific veneer.

Despite Pyongyang’s bellicose claims to the contrary, the North is still seen as being years away from developing a credible inter-continen-tal ballistic missile (ICBM).

A key challenge it faces is master-ing the re-entry technology required to deliver a payload as far away as the US.

“An ICBM warhead, unlike a sat-ellite, needs to come down as well as go up,” said aerospace engineer John Schilling, who has closely followed the North’s missile programme. “North Korea has never demonstrated the ability to build a re-entry vehicle that can survive at even half the speed an ICBM would require,” Schilling said.

AFP

COLOMBO: The UN rights chief has said Tamil rebels still detained years after the end of Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war should not be granted universal amnesty, a top regional official said yesterday.

More than 200 suspected Tamil separatists remain in prison, many without charge, following the country’s bitter 37-year-war that ended nearly seven years ago.

Tamil political and civil society groups have long demanded their unconditional release, tough the government has rejected demands for universal amnesty.

Speaking on a trip to the island nation, UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said jailed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) mem-bers should clear their names in court, according to the chief minis-ter of Sri Lanka’s former war zone, C. V. Wigneswaran.

“He (Zeid) said it is not the com-mon practice of the international community to give common par-don to such suspects,” Wigneswaran told reporters in Jaffna, where much of the fighting took place. “The issue should be resolved through a legal process, but they should not be granted a common amnesty.” Wigneswaran’s opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) party has repeatedly called for the prisoners to be released unconditionally.

Zeid visited Jaffna on the sec-ond day of a four-day visit and met with several women whose rela-tives remain missing years after the end of the conflict that left 100,000 people dead.

His visit comes after the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution late last year calling for an investigation into wartime atrocities committed by both the government-backed military and Tamil Tiger separatists. The aim of Zeid’s trip is to gauge progress of the investigation ahead of a report to the UN rights council he is set to deliver in March.

AFP

SEOUL: South Korean and US defence officials said yesterday that they would begin formal talks on the deployment on the Korean penin-sula of a US missile defence system to counter the growing threat from North Korea.

The announcement followed a North Korean rocket launch which the US and its allies con-demned as a covert ballistic missile test.

“It has been decided to formally start talks on the possibility of deploying the THAAD sys-tem to South Korea as part of steps to bolster the missile defence of the Korea-US alliance,” said Yoo Jeh-Seung, the South’s deputy defence minister for policy.

There has been speculation for years about the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system — one of the most advanced in the world — to the South, one of Washington’s main Asian allies.

The US insists that it is a deterrent necessi-tated by the North’s advancing ballistic missile programme, while China and Russia argue that it would undermine stability and could trigger an arms race in a delicately balanced region.

China said it was “deeply concerned” at the decision to begin official negotiations.

“When pursuing its own security, one coun-try should not impair others’ security interests,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chuny-ing, adding moves to advance the deployment would escalate tensions on the peninsula and

damage regional peace and stability.South Korea said there was no alternative.

“The Korea-US alliance had no choice but to take such a defence action because North Korea staged a strategic provocation and is refusing to have a genuine dialogue on denuclearisa-tion,” Yoo said in a joint briefing with Lieutenant General Thomas Vandal, commander of the US Eighth Army based in the South.

Vandal argued that it was “time to move for-ward” with the THAAD issue, saying there was “growing support” in the South for its deploy-ment. Pyongyang says any such move would be a Cold War tactic to “contain” China and Russia. But Yoo stressed the THAAD system — if deployed — would “operate only regarding North Korea”.

Speaking in response to the North’s rocket launch, Kim Yong-Hyun, chief operations officer at the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers that the upcoming annual joint US-South Korea military exercises would be the largest yet held. The Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises, to be staged in March and April this year, will boast the “most cutting-edge” technology, Kim said.

The South’s military will also set up more loudspeakers along the border to broad-cast propaganda programmes to the North in response to the rocket launch, he added.

Pyongyang has long criticised both the joint US-South Korea military exercises, which it claims are practice for an invasion, and the South’s loudspeakers, which it has previously threatened to open fire on.

A view of the rocket launch of the earth observation satellite Kwangmyong 4 at an undisclosed location in North Korea yesterday.

N Korea triggers fresh outrage with space rocket launch

North Korea last launched a long-range rocket in December 2012, placing a similar Earth observation satellite in orbit

South Korea and US to discuss deployment of THAAD system

UN ‘against’

amnesty for

jailed rebels

in Sri Lanka

VIEWS10 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

By Jennifer Rubin

The Washington Post

We do not know whether Sat-urday’s Republican debate will

change the direction of the New Hampshire race. We do not know if the polls (any of them) are accurate. What we do know is that on Tuesday night there will be a bunch of candidates who finish out of the top three spots. Those may include some or all of the following: Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson, New Jersey Gov Chris Christie and Ohio Gov John Kasich.

Recall that in Iowa, Carson finished fourth, Bush sixth, Kasich eighth, Fiorina ninth and Chris-tie 10th. The question for these candidates, if they finish no bet-ter than fourth in New Hampshire, is what rationale they could have for remaining in the race. Car-son will have had his best shot in Iowa; Christie, Kasich and Bush will have had their chance in New Hampshire. Christie, Kasich and

Bush (and their respective super PACs) did not skimp on spending in New Hampshire. As for Fio-rina, she chose to pout over her exclusion from the debate, but that would be no excuse for a bad loss. She was not remotely close to any of the entry criteria (third in Iowa or sixth in polls either nation-ally or from New Hampshire). If neither early state shows much interest in her, does she expect to win in bigger, more expensive states?

In the modern primary era, we have never seen a candidate who came in, say fifth and sev-enth in the first two states, go on to win the nomination. Ever. Indeed, since 1976 (the first year of the Iowa caucuses), on the GOP side the eventual nominee always has finished in the top three in Iowa or New Hampshire.

Rational observers looking at such a state of affairs would read-ily conclude that where candidates have maximised efforts in the states most favourable to them and failed to gain any traction, contin-uing on would be highly unlikely to produce any different result. To the contrary, the results are likely to deteriorate as money dries up and they are perceived as nonvi-able candidates. In addition to the order of finish, candidates need to consider the magnitude of their losses. If they have yet to hit dou-ble digits it is hard to argue their is a felt need for thier candidacy. From the point of view of fam-ily members, staff and friends, the emotional, and in some cases financial toll, would be great as the losses piled up. Future hope of a Cabinet post or another pres-idential run would dim.

So what would be the ration-ale for continuing on?

A favourite retort would be, “We have a national organisation!” Wait. A national organisation is there to extend one’s winning streak, to ensure one has the infrastructure so that popularity in early states is not overwhelmed by an opponent’s superior resources. If they had their terrific organisation in New Hampshire and/or Iowa and still lost badly, why would their national organ-isation have any better luck?

Another argument for soldier-ing on despite the voters’ clear verdict would be to make sure that certain issues are “heard.” The issue in this case must be some-thing more than the candidate’s own record and specific propos-als (which already have failed to impress voters). Beyond that, is there really a case that major policy positions (pro- and anti-immigration reform, tax reform of various types, internationalist and less internationalist foreign policy, etc.) require advocates in the race beyond the first three

candidates?What about the value of hav-

ing one governor stick around (if Cruz, Rubio and Trump are the top three finishers in New Hampshire)? Questions about public sector executive prowess are legitimate. If, however, voters in two states have dismissed exec-utive public sector experience as a necessity, it is hard to insist on force-feeding them a steady diet of “you need to have experience making tough calls.” In any event, at most this is a rationale for the top-finishing governor moving on to South Carolina, provided he finishes in double digits on Tuesday. That means one gover-nor, no more.

So where does that leave us? If candidates who bombed in Iowa bomb again in New Hamp-shire, there is no reason to think they will do better down the road. There is no historical precedent for such a candidate to go on to win the nomination. Ego or resent-ment is not a reason to remain in the race, especially if the candi-date’s effort is reduced to negative attacks on the other contenders. Even if desperate candidates want to continue on, donors and the party itself (by influencing debate criteria and calling for consolida-tion of the field) can force their hand. Better, then, to go out grace-fully as Rick Santorum, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, and Mike Huckabee did than be known as someone who got humiliated in state after state and paved the way for a can-didate like Trump.

Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Washington Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.

When it is time to pack it in

N orth Korea excels in provocation. This impoverished, reclusive communist state never misses an opportunity to launch a new missile or conduct a nuclear test in violation of all international laws which forbid it from undertaking such provocative and jingoistic measures. Its latest action

is the launch of a long-range rocket carrying what it called a satellite, which comes weeks after a nuclear bomb test. Pyongyang said the launch of the satellite Kwangmyongsong-4, named after late leader Kim Jong Il, was a complete success and it was making a polar orbit of Earth every 94 minutes. But its neighbours and the US denounced the launch as a missile test, conducted in defiance of UN sanctions.

As expected, the North Korean test has invited international condemnation, especially from Pyongyang’s neighbours who are worried about the persistent escalation in tension caused by the communist state. The United Nations Security Council condemned the launch after an emergency meeting in New York and the US, South Korea and Japan called for talks on how to respond to the isolated country’s latest action. The 15 council members unanimously approved a statement that said any launch

of ballistic missile technology, “even if characterized as a satellite launch or space launch vehicle”, contributes to North Korea’s development of systems to deliver nuclear weapons. World leaders too have warned of serious consequences.

The UN and the world are yet to find a way to rehabilitate North Korea and get it to abandon its insane policies which serve no other purpose than satisfying the ego of its 33-year-old leader Kim Jong Un. The threat of more sanctions is highly unlikely to disturb the country, as it is already facing a slew of sanctions resulting in its complete isolation. The UN is thinking of stiffening sanctions

after the rocket launch, but the security council has been discussing a new round of sanctions following its fourth nuclear test last month. Some experts say domestic reasons could have been behind the latest adventures. Kim could be trying to bolster his domestic image and legitimacy ahead of a ruling party congress in May, the first since 1980. But that’s no consolation for a region which wants peace and stability, not an arms race.

South Korea, Pyongyang’s main rival, is planning counter measures. Seoul said that it and the US would begin discussions on deploying an advanced missile defence system, called the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD), to counter the growing threat from North’s weapons capabilities. Its military also said it would make annual military exercises with US forces “the most cutting-edge and the biggest” this year.

The world is still struggling to restrain North Korea.

Pyongyang’s provocation

Quote of the day

If they (Syrian refugees)reached our door and have no other choice, if necessary, we have to and will let our brothers in.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkish President

North Korea’s rocket launch has ratcheted up tension in an already tense region.

If candidates who bombed in Iowa bomb again in New Hampshire, there is no reason to think they will do better down the road. There is no historical precedent for such a candidate to go on to win the nomination.

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Handing minors to human traffickersThe Washington Post

In the summer of 2014, head-lines were dominated by a crisis of unaccompanied

migrant children fleeing to the United States, seeking shelter from poverty and violence in Central America. However, many of these migrant children left desperate conditions in their home coun-tries only to be caught in the grip of human traffickers here in the United States, delivered to crimi-nal captors by the federal agencies mandated to help protect them.

Since 2011, more than 125,000 minors have crossed the US-Mex-ico border; October and November of last year alone saw more than 10,500 unaccompanied minors apprehended by Customs and Border Protection. Since 2014, the majority of unaccompanied chil-dren have come from El Salvador,

Guatemala and Honduras; almost 40 percent of them are 15 or 16 years old.

The Office of Refugee Reset-tlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for placing unaccom-panied children in the custody of adult sponsors who are expected to care for them while their immi-gration cases are being processed. But according to whistleblower claims, many of these children were released into the hands of sponsors with criminal records, including homicide, child moles-tation and trafficking.

A recently released Senate report confirmed that HHS in 2014 placed at least six children with a ring of human traffickers, who then forced them to work at Trillium egg farm in Ohio for as little as $2 a day. According to a 2015 criminal indictment, the chil-dren were subjected to inhumane

treatment - forced to work six or seven days a week, 12 hours a day, and the traffickers “repeatedly threatened the victims and their families with physical harm,and even death, if they did not work or surrender their entire paychecks.” The children were housed in trail-ers with “no bed, no heat, no hot water, no working toilets, and vermin.”

The Trillium trafficking case is symptom of a wider problem with monitoring unaccompanied minors once they enter the United States. The Senate report noted 13 other cases of post- placement trafficking of minors, with 15 more cases indicating signs of possible trafficking. Inexcusable gaps in HHS policies and procedures led to unaccompanied minors being placed with sponsors or relevant adults in a household without background checks.

The administration says that

it has strengthened its back-ground-check procedures and that adults with serious crimi-nal offenses are now disqualified from becoming sponsors. But HHS accepts no responsibility for the care and safety of minors once they are placed with spon-sors, insisting that state and local child protection agencies are responsible for their wel-fare. HHS and the Department of Homeland Security urgently need to establish a clear agree-ment as to which federal agency is responsible for monitoring the welfare of unaccompanied minors from the time they are placed with a sponsor until the time of their immigration hear-ings. Vulnerable, lonely children fleeing violence and abuse in Central America shouldn’t be subjected to more of the same once they arrive in the United States.

E S TA B L I S H E D I N 1996

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

ACTING EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORHUSSAIN AHMAD

hussain@pen.com.qa

EDITOR IAL

OPINION 11 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Fighting corruption in Arab Spring countries

By Dr Noureddine Miladi

One key demand for which peo-ple took to the streets in the Arab Spring countries back in 2011 was uprooting corruption.It

was hoped that, in that part of the world, a serious attempt to stop all forms of unethi-cal misconduct would have been set up.A simple definition of corruption, according to ‘tranparency.org’, is ‘dishonest or fraud-ulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery’. However the scope of such a concept in some parts of the Arab Spring countriesinvolves a wide array of fraudulent behaviour by those in poweras well asin private sector bodies.

Thanks to the Tunisian revolution we knew that ousted Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his family amassed billions from public funds, in Tunisia Dinars as well as USA Dollars and other European currencies. Much of his wealth has been stashed abroad in Switzerland, London, France and Canada.

Also to the shock of the world, the Lib-yan revolution revealed that Gaddafi owned over 100 billion dollars, in addition to lav-ish castles which were discovered were for his family’s use while he pretended to lead a modest life (in an Arab tent).

Former Egyptian Minister of the Inte-rior, AdliMansoor, is being tried for stealing over 2 billion dollars while in office after the Egyptian revolution of 25 January 2011.

According to a recent UN report Abdul-lah Salih has gathered more than 60 billion dollars during the last three decades of his rule which he currently invests to finance his militia that is causing havoc in Yemen.

During the Nouri Al Maliki rule in Iraq more than 100 billion dollars disappeared from the state fund, while the government has had problems in paying its employ-ees’ salaries.

Five years after the Arab Spring revolutions,corruption seemsto be on the increasein Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. These countries are becoming the worst in terms of the corruption index. The Corruption Perceptions Index 2015 has revealed that by the end of 2015 Iraq ranked 16, Syria 18, Egypt 36 and Tunisia 38.

However, it is worth noting that has

corruption soared due to various reasons. Firstly, there wasa lack of stringent control mechanisms to monitor fraudulent conduct. Tax evasion in all sectors has been on the increase and bribes resurfaced again after disappearing albeit briefly during 2011 and 2012. Committees created for instance after the revolution in Tunisia were not fully sup-ported by the government and parliament. Their reports tended to face fierce attacks by some ofthe media outlets, and blocking from some legal quarters. What is worse is that the recommendations that appear in those reportsare not normally put into effect by the executive branch. Secondly, the dem-ocratically elected governments such as in Tunisia have also so far nottaken rigorous measures to hold to account corrupt poli-ticians, state employees and well-known family members of ousted president Ben Ali who were accused of immense corruption.

Moreover,what can be dismalsometimes is the fact that Western powers have not been of much help in reducing corruption partly because they knew all about it in countries like Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen before the revolutions and yet they sus-tained those regimes.

As a matter of fact, the West has suc-cessfully built over the yearsvery robust anti-corruption measures and systems to fight all sorts of corruption internally. The media in Europe and the USA tend to reveal stories about scores of examples in terms

of fighting bribery and all forms of unethi-cal misconduct especially when it comes to the public sector. However these systems are not much adhered to when operating in third world countries. The USA involve-ment in Iraq for instance and the corruption scandals of the US backed government after 2003 is a case in point.

By the end of 2015,the Corruption Per-ceptions Index 2015 revealed that Northern European countries such as Denmark, Fin-land, Sweden, New Zealand, Netherlands and Norway emerged as top in anticor-ruption. But having a ‘clean public sector at home’, says the report ‘doesn’t mean it isn’t linked to corruption elsewhere.Take Sweden for instance. It comes third in the index, yet the Swedish-Finnish firm Telia-Sonera – 37 per cent owned by the Swedish state – is facing allegations that it paid mil-lions of dollars in bribes to secure business in Uzbekistan’.

On a final note, for the Arab Spring coun-tries to prosper and establish a just system they need to eradicate corruption through setting up sturdy mechanisms to fight cor-ruption. Dictatorial regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and Yemencreated systems of money laundering not easy for any inves-tigation to break. Such systems entail the collaboration of law enforcement bodies, government agencies, parliament as well as civil society. Individuals who work in anti-corruption bodies should be well protected.

Currently, those who attempt to expose cor-ruption get targeted and sometimes receive death threats.

The UK as with other European coun-tries have been serious in working tounveil corrupt funds and report this back to the Arab Spring countries. However what is uncovered is only the tip of the iceberg. The new Swiss law, known as the Restitution of Illicit Assets Act, which took effect a couple of years ago and gives the Swiss govern-ment ‘more freedom of action to repatriate questionable funds’ is a move in the right direction. However, this has not yet facil-itated the release of large parts of funds illegally kept in Swiss banks by dictators such as Ben Ali, Gaddafi, and Mubarak,among scores of others.

Democratically elected governments in the Arab Spring countries should also inculcate the culture of transparency in society. This process starts from the educa-tional system before it gets imparted to all realms of life. Fighting corruption and fraud-ulent conduct should eventually become the concern of not only the media, the jus-tice system, and policy makers but also of civil society organisations, education and indeed all citizens.

Dr Noureddine Miladi is a university pro-fessor of Media and Communication. He can be reached via email: nmiladi@hotmail.com

A file picture shows Tunisians holdiing banners and the national flag during a silent demonstration in Tunis.

‘Big men’ setting back hopes for democracy in AfricaBy Mike Cohen and David

Malingha Doya Bloomberg

When then-Presi-dent Bill Clinton visited Africa in 1998, he praised “a new generation of

leaders” as champions of a dawn-ing “African Renaissance.” Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni was one of them: Two years before, he’d been elected president after a decade as a mili-tary ruler.

Museveni is again running for president -- at the age of 71, after abolishing constitutional limits on presidential terms. He refers to the East African nation’s oil reserves as his own, holds a public holiday to mark when he seized power in a coup 30 years ago and is expected to easily win a fifth term in the Feb. 18 elections.

Over the past few months, long-serving leaders in Rwanda, the Republic of Congo and Djibouti also have demonstrated their resolve to cling to power. All are favorites to secure re- election this year or next. Burundian President Pierre Nku-runziza won a third term last year, spurring violence that’s claimed more than 440 lives.

That led another U.S. president to deliver a much sterner message.

“When a leader tries to change the rules in the middle of the game just to stay in office, it risks instability and strife, as we’ve seen in Burundi,” Barack Obama told an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in July 2015. “And sometimes you’ll hear a leader say, ‘Well, I’m the only person who can hold the nation together.’ If that’s true, then that leader has failed to truly build their nation.”

He wasn’t just talking about Burundi. Fifteen leaders of the 48 African countries that hold regular elections have served more than two terms or indicated their intention to do so. Advances in governance in Africa have stalled since 2008 after nine years of progress, according to a study released in October by a foundation

started by Sudanese-born billionaire Mo Ibrahim. Standards slipped in 21 countries between 2011 and 2014, it said. John Akokpari, an international-relations professor at the University of Cape Town, said China’s increased interest in the continent has lessened pressure to follow democratic rules because leaders can get investment and financing regardless.

“Countries don’t feel that they can be punished and that they will lose anything substantial,” he said. “That initial euphoria of embracing democ-racy in the 1990s is waning.”

Political upheaval is adding to economic strain in a continent reeling from the commodity price rout. Foreign direct investment into Africa dived 31 percent to $38 billion last year, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and

Development. An unstable political environment was judged the big-gest deterrent to investment by 501 executives canvassed in accounting firm EY’s 2015 Africa Attractiveness Survey.

Africa made democratic strides in the 1990s, when Zambia had its first democratic change of govern-ment, Mozambique’s civil war ended and South Africa negotiated a peace-ful end to apartheid. Zairean dictator Mobutu sese Seko was toppled from what later became Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ghana and Nigeria reverted to democracy.

More recently Muhammadu Buhari wrested the Nigerian presi-dency from Goodluck Jonathan in April, the first such deposition of an incumbent since independence in 1960. Six months earlier, mass dem-onstrations in Burkina Faso forced Blaise Compaore to quit after 27 years in power. But the Ibrahim Founda-tion, which offers a lucrative annual award to former African leaders who dedicated their rule to improving their people’s lives, has only selected five winners since 2007.

Some key countries seem to be faltering,” Ibrahim said at the release of the governance report last year. “This is a warning sign for all of us.”

Uganda’s opposition parties, which have mounted protests against Musev-eni’s rule, complain of harassment and

abuse of state resources, allegations Museveni denies. The vote may lack credibility because civil rights groups and the media have been harassed, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a Jan. 10 report.

Speaking on the campaign trail last month, Museveni said he helped increase access to health care, water and electricity and that his record in office showed he was the best man for the job. His spokeswoman, Lin-dah Nabusayi, didn’t answer calls to her mobile phone or return messages seeking comment. There have been few signs of dissent in neighboring Rwanda, where more than 98 percent of people who voted in a referendum last year backed a constitutional amendment to extend term limits. That will allow President Paul Kagame, 58, to seek a third term next year.

“There are places where they observe term limits and the only thing that is constant is the mess they are in,” Kagame said in an interview published by the Nairobi-based East African newspaper in July.

Rwanda remains an investors’ favorite. The economy has grown an average of 7.6 percent a year since Kagame took office in 2000 after leading a rebel army that ended the 1994 genocide. It ranks among Africa’s easiest places to do business, accord-ing to the World Bank.

The connection between

long-serving leaders and a country’s ability to grow and attract investment may depend on the individual con-cerned, said Aubrey Hruby, founder of the Africa Expert Network. Its members provides advice on doing business on the continent.

“There are some companies that look upon continuity favorably because it signals that there’s proba-bly going to be policy continuity and predictability,” she said from Wash-ington. “Rwanda is a case in point.”

Many entrenched African lead-ers have a poor record of combating corruption and fostering development and civil rights.

Uganda ranked 139th out of 168 countries on Transparency Interna-tional’s 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index. Angola ranked 163rd, while Zimbabwe and Burundi were both rated 150th. Rwanda was the excep-tion, ranking 44th.

To Yolande Bouka, a Nairobi-based researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, Africa’s so-called big men entrench themselves at their country’s expense.

“Friction and instability comes from resistance to the legacy of the big man,” she said by email. Leaders who personalise power often have “bad human-rights records, and dur-ing electoral periods more repression is used to keep power in the hands of a few.”

Fighting corruption and fraudulent conduct should eventually become the concern of not only the media, the justice system, and policy makers but also of civil society organisations, education and indeed all citizens

All thoughts and views expressed in these columns are those of the writers, not of the newspaper.All correspondence regarding Views and Opinion pages should be mailed to the Editor-in-Chief.

ASIA / AFRICA12 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Rescuers drill into rubble to save 120 people

AFP

TAINAN: Rescuers raced yesterday to free more than 120 people bur-ied under the rubble of an apartment complex felled by an earthquake in southern Taiwan that left 29 confirmed dead, as an investigation began into the collapse.

The death toll rose as emergency workers dug for survivors of the 6.4-magnitude quake that toppled the 16-storey complex of almost 100 homes in the city of Tainan on Saturday.

Officials said an investigation had been launched as questions were raised over the safety of the residen-tial blocks in the complex.

Tainan mayor William Lai said sur-vivors and relatives had reported legal “violations” but gave no further detail.

“I’ve contacted judicial units and prosecutors have formally launched an investigation,” said Lai.

“We’ve also commissioned three independent bodies to preserve evi-dence during the rescue so we can assist the residents if they want to file lawsuits in the future. We will hold the builder responsible if they have bro-ken the law.”

Local media reported the con-struction company that built the complex had gone out of business and

also raised questions over the quality of the materials used.

Yueh Chin-sen, whose mother-in-law’s family of eight is still trapped, said the residents had complained of defects in the building.

“They complained that the building wasn’t well constructed as there were cracks in the walls and tiles fell off after several quakes in recent years,” he said.

“I hope the government will pros-ecute the builder on criminal charges as people lost their lives.”

Rescuers said 122 residents were still missing, with 103 of them trapped “very deep” in the rubble, according to Lai.

“There’s no way to get to them direct, it’s very difficult,” Lai said, adding that emergency workers were having to shore up the ruins to ensure they were secure before digging.

Several survivors were pulled from the rubble yesterday, more than 24 hours after the quake struck, as rescuers used life detectors in their desperate search.

One 20-year-old man was freed from the ruins after emergency work-ers spent eight hours carefully digging him out.

Census records show around 260 people living in the blocks but Lai said it was now thought that more than 300 had been inside.

Officials have said that some stu-dents renting rooms would not have been registered as living in the build-ing, and additional family members may have returned there to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday starting today. Rescuers drilled down into the rubble yesterday, urging survivors to stay strong as they tried to reach them.

Around 200 have been rescued so far and more than 50 others were able to escape unaided.

Emergency workers used cranes, ladders and sniffer dogs to trace and extract survivors.

Among the 29 people confirmed

killed by the quake, 27 died in the apartment complex collapse, includ-ing several children.

Tearful relatives huddled by the ruins, hoping for news.

Chen Yu-mei told how her three-month-old son was trapped inside with her sister’s family of seven. “He’s a small child, I’m worried sick,” she told AFP, her voice cracking and eyes red from crying.

Another woman said her son had been found dead but she was hold-ing out hope for her daughter-in-law and two grandchildren still trapped inside. “I won’t give up hope, I will wait here until I see them come out safe,” she said.

Survivors spoke of their terror and relief. One man said how he was rescued after tapping on a wardrobe that was trapping him. “I knocked on

the closet to get the attention of res-cuers who broke the window to get me,” said Su Yi-ming, 48, who lived with his family on the sixth floor of the Wei-kuan complex.

Su escaped unhurt while his wife and their two children sustained minor injuries.

The quake struck at a shallow depth of 10km (six miles) at around 4am Saturday (2000 GMT Friday).

Taiwan Army members and civilian rescuers search for survivors in the building that collapsed in Saturday’s quake in Tainan in Taiwan.

Loan rejection may have been

warning of poor constructionReuters

TAINAN: Before their apartment tower collapsed in a Taiwan earth-quake at the weekend, a young couple living on the 14th floor had already been given a clue that the building was unsafe.

But it came too late.Chen Yi-ting and her husband

bought the apartment in the centre of Tainan city five years ago, having relocated from an outlying district. They had a small hiccup with the mortgage — the first bank they approached had declined their loan application without stating why — but they found another lender and moved in with their infant daughter.

Soon after, according to Chen’s mother, one of the couple’s friends,

who had ties to the first bank, told them that it had a policy of refusing loans to residents of the 17-storey Wei-guan Golden Dragon Building, due to its poor construction.

Now, Chen, 35, and her husband, Lin Wu-chong, 38, are in intensive-care in two separate hospitals in the southern city. She has a cracked skull and he has damaged lungs.

Their seven-year-old daughter is dead.

“People from outside of the town, people like them, had no idea what was going on before they moved in,” Chen’s mother, Kuo Yi-chien, explained as she waited in a hospital corridor outside the intensive-care unit where her daughter is.

“They did not know the build-ing was completed by the second developer after the first one went bust. They only found out after they

signed the contract.” The two-dec-ades-old building is at the centre of rescue efforts after the 6.4 magni-tude quake struck before dawn on Saturday, with at least 24 known to have died there and more than 120 still missing deep in the rubble.

It was the only major highrise building in the city of 2 million peo-ple to have completely collapsed. Its lower stories, filled with arcades of shops, pancaked on top of each other before the entire U-shaped complex toppled in on itself.

Sixty-one-year-old Kuo said residents of the building had long complained of many problems before the quake, such as tiles fall-ing from walls, malfunctioning lifts and blocked pipes.

The couple paid 3.5 million Taiwan dollars ($105,000) for the apartment.

Al Qaeda frees

Australian lady

kidnapped in

Burkina Faso

Reuters

NIAMEY: An elderly Australian woman kidnapped with her hus-band in Burkina Faso by a group affiliated to Al Qaeda has been freed, neighbouring Niger’s Pres-ident Mahamadou Issoufou said on Saturday.

Issoufou presented the woman, Jocelyn Elliott, at a news confer-ence in Dosso, southwestern Niger, and said authorities were intensi-fying efforts to secure the release of her husband.

The pair were seized on Jan-uary 15.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said on Friday it had kidnapped the couple and would release the woman uncondition-ally due to public pressure and guidance from Al Qaeda leaders not to involve women in war.

The circumstances of her release and how she arrived in Niger were not immediately clear.

For over 40 years, Dr Ken Elli-ott and his wife, who are in their 80s, have operated a 120-bed clinic in the town of Djibo near Burkina Faso’s border with Mali.

Their children in Australia said they were “deeply grateful for the safe release of our mother Jocelyn”.

“We are trusting that the moral and guiding principles of those who have released our mother will also be applied to our elderly father who has served the com-munity of Djibo and the Sahel for more than half his lifetime,” they said in a statement.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull thanked the governments of Niger and Burkina Faso for their assistance and con-firmed that his government had spoken to Jocelyn Elliott follow-ing her release.

The Elliotts were abducted from the town the same day Al Qaeda fighters raided a restau-rant and hotel in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, and killed 30 people, many of whom were foreigners.

A relative cries after being informed that his family member was dead in the tragedy, yesterday.

Grave diggers of Nigeria’s Maiduguri tell morbid tales AFP

MAIDUGURI: Even the dead weren’t safe from Boko Haram when the Islamist insurgency erupted in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri nearly seven years ago.

“They began to destroy this one,” said Babagana Modu, gesturing to a mound of baked earth and sand — the grave of a prominent Muslim cleric.

“We tried to stop them but we couldn’t. They had guns and we didn’t. We only had our shovels,” the 30-year-old told AFP.

The dead may no longer be able to tell tales but the grave diggers of the Gwange cemetery certainly can.

They talk of a place where piles of bodies were routinely dumped from trucks and some were even brought to be killed.

But in recent times, Modu and his colleagues say their workload has decreased as attacks become more sporadic and a sustained counter-insurgency brings a relative calm to the much-targeted city.

“At the height of the insurgency,

200, 300, 400 bodies were being brought here. Sometimes the sanita-tion department trucks were bringing three truckloads of dead bodies,” said Modu.

“If they still had more left, they would go back and bring them the next day. This road just outside the cemetery was not passable because of the stench.”

Modu’s estimation may be an exaggeration but not by much. At least 17,000, possibly more, have died over-all across the Muslim-majority north.

The police and military launched a crackdown in Maiduguri after a series of Boko Haram attacks at the end of July 2009. Some 800 Islam-ists, including the group’s then leader Muhammad Yusuf, were killed in just a few days in what is considered the start of Boko Haram’s insurgency.

Modu’s boss, Bulama Ali, speaks of smaller numbers, although he admitted there was a time when the cemetery was almost full.

“In the past we would get up to 20 to 30 bodies every day. Now we get five to 10. Most of these are deaths from natural causes.”

“It’s an indication that there’s

relative peace returned to Maidug-uri and the metropolis,” he added.

Sixty-year-old Ali’s 22 staff are volunteers, young men dressed in fading replica football shirts, dusty trousers and flip flops.

Some started work with their fathers at a young age and know

little else. They now dig graves in the parched earth, cut down trees for the wood to cover the bodies or make earthenware pots that serve as grave markers for families of the deceased.

Three-metre-long (10 feet) mounds of earth for adults and smaller ones for children rise out of

the ground, uniformly facing east towards the holy city of Makkah.

Groups and individuals quietly pay their respects to the dead off the sweeping paths lined by neem trees, with the sounds only of bleat-ing goats, birdsong and the rustle of lizards darting through fallen leaves.

Not all graves are marked. Those that are and with dates from 2009 onwards only hint at the possibility of a connection to the insurgency.

“It’s not our business to ask how they died,” said Ali.

The young grave diggers, though, are well aware of who lies just under the earth towards the high perime-ter wall.

“From here to the wall over there and from there to the other end of the cemetery... is all Boko Haram dead bodies,” said Modu, pointing to a stretch of open ground and scrub the size of a football pitch.

Islamic custom dictates the dead are washed and wrapped in a shroud before being placed on their right side and the body covered with wood and earth.

Boko Haram’s dead were not extended the courtesy.

Residents had complained of cracks in walls of the building built by a firm gone out of business

A man digs a grave for victims of Boko Haram militants at Gwange Cemetery in northeast Nigeria’s Maiduguri.

An Afghan customer buys a burger from a Lazeez food truck in Kabul. When the first Lazeez food truck arrived in Kabul many mistook it for a rickshaw and wanted to hail a ride — the yellow chassis and three wheels so reminiscent of taxis popular in South Asia. But it took little time for the city’s emerging middle class to embrace the novelty of canteens-on-wheels serving Western fast foods around town.

Canteen on wheels

PAKISTAN 13MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Internews

ISLAMABAD: The PPP’s leaders, who had so far been reluctant to join the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) pro-tests, believe that the government’s handling of the PIA crisis may lead to a larger cooperation between the two opposition parties outside par-liament.

The main opposition PPP says that since PTI Chairman Imran Khan has started ‘behaving maturely’ and his party is now playing its role inside parliament, it cannot rule out the possibility of the two parties hold-ing joint demonstrations.

“Imran Khan Sahab has realised that the PTI should play a role inside parliament. Therefore, we cannot rule out the possibility of joining the PTI on the streets,” the PPP’s infor-mation secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira said on Sunday.

According to PTI’s deputy par-liamentary leader in the National Assembly, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the two parties have already started cooperation in parliament and he sees no harm in joining hands with the PPP outside too. The two parties came closer in parliament when the government introduced a controver-sial tax amnesty scheme for traders in the National Assembly last month.

After several meetings, leaders of all the opposition parties decided to adopt a joint strategy against the gov-ernment inside parliament on public issues. In a rare display of unity last week, the PPP, the PTI and other opposition parties submitted requisi-tion notices to the National Assembly and Senate secretariats to convene sessions of the two houses to discuss the ongoing fiasco pertaining to the Pakistan International Airlines.

Qureshi said the PTI had pre-sented its new “charter of demands” on Sunday. “Now my question to the PPP leaders is if it is acceptable to them or not,” he said. The charter pertains to issues that have a direct impact on the life of the people, such as insufficient reduction in oil prices and imposition of new taxes in gas bills.

Kaira said the PPP had always stood for the rights of the work-ing class and would continue to extend its “traditional support” to PIA workers in their protest against the government’s plans to sell the national flag carrier. The PPP leader alleged that the government had started using force and resorted to extreme steps, including “murdering”

two PIA employees, adding that his party would go to any length to pro-tect the workers’ rights. He admitted that in the past, the PPP had reserva-tions over joining hands with the PTI, but said that the way the government had been handling the PIA issue, “the situation may lead to a larger coop-eration between the two parties in the future”.

Last week, the PPP held a dem-onstration against the Orange Line Metro Train Project in Lahore but did not allow PTI leaders to become part of ‘its show’. Led by Lahore PPP president Samina Khalid Ghurki and information secretary Faisal Mir, the protesters shouted slogans against the Punjab government for depriving people of their houses and businesses and damaging the city’s heritage.

Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly MianMahmoodur Rashid of the PTI faced embarrassment when a group of PPP workers did not allow him to join the demonstration.

Next day, the PPP’s provincial leaders contacted Rashid and apol-ogised over the incident, putting the blame on some “undisciplined” workers.

Agencies

KABUL: The commander of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan has presented military leaders with rec-ommendations that, if approved, would further expand the US military role in helping local forces confront the Taliban and other militants.

Senior Pentagon officials are examining steps designed to enhance support to the Afghan military in what is expected to be a bloody 2016, including potentially allow-ing US forces to accompany a wider range of Afghan units close to the front lines and expanding the use of US air power, Gen. John F. Campbell said in an interview with The Wash-ington Post.

“I’m not going to leave without making sure my leadership under-stands that there are things we need to do,” the general said during a visit to Washington. The proposals could also broaden the US military’s abil-ity to target different militants in

Afghanistan, officials familiar with the matter said.

The recommended changes to authorities in Afghanistan would once more expand the scope of US military activities in Afghanistan, where foreign forces were supposed to be limited to a chiefly advisory role since Washington declared an end to combat operations in 2014.

Increasingly, US military lead-ers are talking about a years- or even decades-long presence in Afghani-stan. David Sedney, a former senior Pentagon official for Afghanistan and Pakistan, described Presi-dent Obama’s withdrawal plans as “flawed” from the start and said they had made local forces vulner-able because they phased out foreign support too quickly.

“What happened in the last few months of 2015 is that it became so obvious that we had to make a deci-sion to go back to what we should have done in the first place,” he said.

He said the Obama administra-tion had been wrong to assume that hoped-for peace talks might preclude

a longer military presence. “They banked on hope instead of reality, and now they’re paying the piper.”

Gen. Campbell, who will retire when he steps down from the Afghanistan command, was in Washington last week to discuss Afghanistan’s security outlook with lawmakers

Meanwhile, Afghan police have killed two Taliban commanders in Narkh District of Maidan Wardak province in central Afghanistan, the Afghan Ministry of Interior announced on Sunday.

According to a statement released by the ministry, one raid was con-ducted in Deh Muslim area last night in which Baryalai was gunned down along with his bodyguard, Afghan News Agency (Khaama) reported.

Baryalai was involved in most of the attacks on the cellular phone tow-ers in the area.

The second raid was conducted in Shah Kabuli area around 6 am this morning in which another Taliban commander by the name of Abdul Wahid was killed.

AFP

KARACHI: A fire started by a fall ing oil lamp engulfed several huts in a Pakistan fishing village and killed 10 people including women and children early yesterday, police said.

The tragedy occurred on Bachoo island in the Thatta district of the southern province of Sindh.

“The fire broke out after an oil lamp in one of the huts fell to the ground. The fire later engulfed several huts, killing 10 people,” a senior local police official, Fida Hussain said.

He said nine people died on the spot and another on the way to the hospital.

Two children and four women were among the dead, while two injured children were transferred to the Civil Hospital in Karachi for treatment.

US urged to expand militaryrole in Afghanistan: Report

PIA crisis may bring PPP and PTI closer

Internews

ISLAMABAD: “I get these reports every morning. They are somewhat painful to read since, as you know, in Pakistan, the media can be par-ticularly outrageous. However, we can’t ignore the fact that these talk shows are the most watched program-ming,” former US undersecretary of

state Judith McHale wrote in an email to Hillary Clinton in February 2010.

The reports she refers to are exhaustive summaries of Pakistani prime time talk shows that log the dis-cussion on various local TV shows on a daily basis.

The media summaries, which regularly arrive in the email inboxes of US embassy employees or State Department officials in Washing-ton, appear repeatedly in the US

presidential candidate’s recently declassified emails, most frequently between 2009 and 2012.

The emails offer a rare insight into Washington’s engagement with Islamabad through the lens of the local media. In background discus-sions, current and former embassy officials admitted that journalists and media were the primary sources of information for many officials who came to Pakistan.

The summaries of talk shows and news coverage, which contain exhaustive details on what-was-said and who-was-saying-it, would be dis-cussed among Clinton’s aides at the Washington level if there was some-thing of interest to them.

Michael Kugelman from the Woodrow Wilson Centre explained that the importance Washington placed on Pakistani media could be gauged from the fact that the embassy

in Islamabad actually started issuing official statements meant to “correct the record” when ‘false or mislead-ing’ claims were made in media about the US or its policies. “It’s an initiative that didn’t last long - and at any rate I’m not sure how effective it was given that many Pakistanis, including those most likely to believe the media asser-tions that the US was trying to reject, probably were not aware of these US counter-statements,” he said.

For example, a series of emails exchanged between State Department officials in April 2010 expressed frus-tration with former ISI chief Hamid Gul’s allegations that the US is impli-cated in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

The exchange notes that Gul was one of the people named by Bhutto as possible ‘threats to her security’ in a letter sent to Gen Musharraf before she came to Pakistan.

Internews

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani govern-ment officials seem least interested in initiating work on a housing scheme involving the construction of 500,000 houses for low income people as the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has yet to approve the sum-mary.

Such approval has been pending for the last eight months.

The prime minister announced the scheme — ApnaGhar Hous-ing Society — in November 2013 right after coming into the power but nothing is coming out of the meetings, mapping and follow-up huddles. The PM office has yet to release Rs500m for the project. The housing and works ministry has also not purchased a single piece of land anywhere in the country for the project.

As per the scheme, the provinces will provide the land free of charge

and the government will construct 500,000 housing units at 1,000 places around Pakistan in five years.

The seriousness of the gov-ernment about the project can be gauged from the fact that the housing society has yet to get a permanent chief executive and related staff to run the programme as another summary for these appointments is pending with the PM for over four months. Currently a joint secretary of the ministry is holding acting charge. The ministry’s joint secre-tary and acting head of the project Akhtar Jan Wazir said that some land had been identified for the project in Jhelum, Gwadar and other areas of Balochistan.

“We are following up the matter but waiting for the approval of sum-mary from the PM,” he said.

Last week, in a Senate Standing Committee on Housing and Works, Minister of State AkramDurrani told the members that for the last eight months they were waiting for the approval of summary from PM.

Fire kills 10 in southern Pakistan

Cheap housing scheme still awaiting PM’s nod

Hillary e-mails suggest US examines Pakistani media closely

Afghan Defence Minister Masum Stanakzai (right) and General John F Campbell, commander of Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, talk with journalist during a joint press conference in Kabul yesterday.

The main opposition PPP says that since PTI Chairman Imran Khan has started ‘behaving maturely’ and his party is now playing its role inside parliament, it cannot rule out the possibility of holding joint demonstrations

Imran Khan, head of opposition political party Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, speaks with workers of Pakistan International Airline (PIA) during an anti-government protest, in Karachi.

INDIA14 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Muslim brides pose for a selfie at a mass marriage ceremony in Ahmedabad yesterday. Eighty-four Muslim couples from various parts of Ahmedabad took the vows during the ceremony organised by a Muslim voluntary organisation.

People attend the funeral of local Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant, Syed Mufeed Bashir, alias Raqib, in Zadoora village of Pulwama district, Kashmir, yesterday. Raqib was killed in a brief gun battle with security forces recently.

Mass marriage ceremony

Kashmir unrest

IANS

PARADIP: Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi yesterday dedicated to the nation a 15-million tonnes a year refinery of the Indian Oil Cor-poration Ltd (IOCL), and expressed regrets over delay in execution of different projects.

“Projects are marred by delays due to legal and tender processes and local agitations, resulting in cost overruns to the country. Initiatives have to be futuristic and completed before the designated time limit so that the country does not sustain cost overruns due to delays,” the prime minister said.

He said a new work culture is being developed to materialise the projects within fixed time frame. Modi took a dig at the Congress after inaugurating the Rs34,555-crore refinery project of 15 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) capacity, saying: “Nowadays, when-ever I go to inaugurate any project, the friends in Congress party say it was started during our time.”

Describing Paradip refinery as Odisha’s ‘Vikas Deep’, Modi said it will fulfil the aspirations of the state’s bright youngsters. He said it will also take gas cylinders to the homes of the poor.

Modi said the Paradip refinery has set a record of sorts when it came to ‘Make in India’ initiative -- the refin-ery will become a source of jobs for

lakhs of poor since several down-stream industries will come up after its commissioning. Modi said his gov-ernment had distributed about Rs1 lakh crore in recent months under the Micro Units Development and Refi-nance Agency scheme to make the youth self-employed.

“MUDRA Yojana has given an opportunity to India’s youth to stand on their own feet and become job-creators, not job-seekers. We don’t want the youth to be job-seekers; they should be job-creators,” said the prime minister. He said effort was on to decrease oil imports and make India self-reliant in petroleum sector.

“I have asked the petroleum ministry to decrease oil imports by 10 percent by 2022, when India will celebrate 75 years of Independence. The ministry will try hard to be self-reliant in oil,” Modi said.

He said the government was also emphasising on solar energy so that it does not depend on other countries for its energy needs. The Indian Oil Corp’s refinery was a step towards that goal, he added.

Modi also congratulated the sci-entists for developing indigenous technology for the refinery project.

“Paradip refinery is made in India, for India and by Indians, using indigenous technology and this has amazed the world,” said Modi.

The refinery at Paradip would produce 78 crore kg of liquefied petro-leum gas, 500 crore kg of petrol, 680 crore kg of disel and 120 lakh quintal of petroleum coke. The project will primarily produce BS-IV fuels and serve the eastern and south-eastern markets, apart from exports.

The refinery is the largest on the country’s eastern coast, and is equipped with the latest technol-ogy, including IOCL’s own patented IndMax technology for better and higher output of liquefied petro-leum gas (LPG).

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urged Modi to ask the Indian Oil Corp. to fulfil its commitment in creating jobs for the region’s people.

The Prime Minister said a new work culture is being developed to materialise the projects within fixed time frame

Modi regrets delay in key projects

IANS

JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir’s former state chief minister Omar Abdullah yesterday asked the PDP to form an elected government in the state or have the courage to break its alliance with the BJP.

Speaking to media on the side-lines of a National Conference function in Nagrota area, Abdul-lah said: “For ten months the PDP had been praising the alliance with the BJP. Now (Peoples Democratic Party chief) Mehbooba Mufti has been asking the BJP-led govern-ment at the centre to announce CBMs.

“I don’t know whether her party leaders know what these CBMs are, but the people of the state don’t know what she is demanding,” he said, adding the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has also asked the PDP to state clearly what they want.

“Mehbooba Mufti must spell out clearly what she wants. Oth-erwise, she must have the courage to break the alliance and seek fresh elections in state,” he said.

Abdullah said as far as his NC was concerned, it would not sup-port any alliance in the state, but start preparing for the next elec-tions. He also said those appointed on various important positions in the state on political considera-tions by the previous government must now resign their positions since an elected government does not exist in the state.

Indian and Chinese armies hold joint tactical exercise

Swaraj and Nepal minister discuss Oli’s visit

Former Andhra minister and wife continue fast on quota issue

Form govt or break ties with BJP: Omartells PDP

IANS

NEW DELHI: Nepalese Prime Min-ister K P Sharma Oli’s upcoming visit to India was among the issues dis-cussed when the Himalayan nation’s Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel called on External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj yesterday.

“FM Poudel discusses recon-struction assistance. Briefs EAM on political situation, remaining con-stitutional issues & PM Oli’s visit to India,” external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted.

Poudel arrived in New Delhi yes-terday on a two-day visit to discuss reconstruction assistance following the earthquake in Nepal in April last

year that claimed over 8,000 lives.He is also scheduled to meet

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in this connection.

There has been speculation about the possibility of Oli’s visit to India after over 50 people were killed in the now more than five-month-long anti-constitutional protest by Madhesis in the southern Nepali Terai.

Most of the 41 transit and customs points along the southern portion of the Himalayan nation’s open border with India have been besieged by Madhesi protesters who are demand-ing, among other things, a redrawing of the boundaries of the provinces in Nepal as proposed in the new Consti-tution — promulgated on September 20 last year — and representation in parliament on the basis of population.

Unnerved by the prolonged Mad-hesi agitation, the ruling coalition and the opposition last month approved two amendments to the four-month-old Constitution partly meeting the demands of the protesters.

However, the Madhesi Morcha spearheading the agitation has rejected the amendments and announced a fresh agitation besides calling for a broader alliance among all forces in the Terai-Madhes region.

The blockade of trucks from India to Nepal by the Madhesis has led to severe shortage of medicines and other essential supplies in the Kath-mandu Valley.

Swarup, however, said in a media briefing here last week that now the situation has improved quite a lot.

“Now, about 1,300 trucks are

passing daily. The waiting is down to about 300-400 trucks,” he said.

The spokesman said that before this whole logjam started, about 1,500 trucks used to go daily.

“Now 1,300 trucks are going and this is despite (the major border crossing points) Raxaul and Birgunj being blocked by the protesters on the Nepalese side. This tells you that the situation has normalised to a large extent,” he said.

Swarup said that as far as the constitutional amendments were concerned, India has welcomed those as good positive steps “and we hope that the remaining issues which the Madhesis have with the Nepalese gov-ernment can also now be sorted out in a spirit of reconciliation, flexibility, compromise and dialogue”.

IANS

JAMMU: The Indian and Chinese armies have held their first joint tac-tical exercise in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, a senior defence official said yesterday.

“The first joint tactical exercise between the border troops of both the countries was conducted in the Chushul-Moldo area on Saturday,” Colonel S D Goswami, spokesman of the army’s Udhampur-headquar-tered Northern Command said while describing about the exercise.

It was part of the ongoing initi-atives to ensure greater interaction between the troops of the two neigh-bouring countries stationed along the Line of Actual Control and thereby ensure peace and tranquil-ity on the border.

“As previously agreed by both countries, the exercise focused on

actions to be coordinated to jointly tackle aspects of humanitarian aid and disaster relief,” Col. Goswami added.

The Indian team of 30 personnel was led by Colonel Ritesh Chandra Singh while the Chinese side was led by Colonel Qu Yi.

“Lasting the entire day, the joint exercise was based on a situation of a national disaster occurring on the border and the subsequent coordina-tion of rescue mission by joint teams of both the countries.,” he said.

“The joint exercise, codenamed ‘Sino-India Cooperation 2016’, com-pliments the hand-in-hand series of the India-China joint exercises and the recently conducted border troops Joint Exercise in Sikkim.”

The spokesperson said: “The increased interaction among Indian and Chinese border troops is a very positive step in enhancing confi-dence-building relations between the two armies.”

IANS

VISAKHAPATNAM: Kapu leader Mudragada Padmanabham and his wife continued their indefinite fast for the third day yesterday in support of the demand for reservation for the community in education and jobs in Andhra Pradesh.

The former minister and his wife Padmavati have been fasting at their

house at Kirlampudi in East Goda-vari district since Friday. The couple locked themselves up and refused to undergo medical check-up.

Though Joint Col lector Satyanarayana and district Super-intendent of Police Ravi Prakash along with a team of doctors reached Mudragada’s house on Sunday, the couple sent them back. The officers made a similar attempt on Saturday night as well. The Kapu leader said there was no need for check-up since

the couple had decided to dedicate their lives for the Kapu community’s cause. He also accused police of pre-venting people from visiting his house.

Meanwhile, police and paramil-itary forces were deployed near the house amid indications that the fast-ing couple may be forcibly shifted to a hospital to break their fast.

They are demanding inclusion of the Kapus in a list of backward classes and reservation for the com-munity in education and jobs. They

are also seeking Rs1,900 crore for a Kapu corporation.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu earlier appealed to Mudra-gada to call off his fast and assured that the Andhra Pradesh government was committed to fulfil its promise to include the Kapus in the BC list.

The government has said a com-mission will make a detailed study of the socio-economic status of the Kapus and recommend the quantum of reservation to be provided.

Meanwhile, police have made tight security arrangements across the district and enforced orders ban-ning assembly of 10 or more people.

Deployment of security forces has been made in Tuni town that witnessed large-scale violence last Sunday when protestors set afire a train, two police stations and sev-eral vehicles.

The Kapus account for 27 per-cent of nearly five crore population of Andhra Pradesh.

INDIA 15MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Tribal artistes take a selfie before a cultural event at the ‘Tendu leaf collectors’ convention’ in Bhopal yesterday. Tendu leaves are used to make beedies which are thin hand-rolled Indian cigarettes filled with tobacco flake, usually wrapped in leaves from a Tendu tree. Some 50,000 persons took part in the convention.

Tribal cultural event

Women drive their cars as they take part in the first women’s car rally organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Bengaluru yesterday.

First woman car rally

IANS

VISAKHAPATNAM: Global navies need to cooperate not compete to secure oceans to propel the econ-omy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday as representatives from 50 navies participated in the International Fleet Review.

“I believe that if oceans were to propel our economies, then we must use seas to build peace, friendship and trust, and curb conflict, respect and ensure freedom of naviga-tion; and cooperate, not compete in responding to the challenges in the seas,” Modi said as the Indian Navy displayed its power, which was followed by a colourful parade by contingents from India and inter-national navies.

“The large presence of foreign navies at this Fleet Review is a con-firmation of our shared urge to walk the pathways of peace and cooper-ation to keep the maritime domain safe and secure,” Modi said.

“The oceans and world’s waterways are global commons. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam - the con-cept of whole world as a family - is perhaps most vividly witnessed on the oceans of the planet, that con-nect us all.”

Modi said India will host the

first ever Global Maritime Summit in April this year.

“To build on the gains from today’s gathering, India would host the first ever Global Maritime Sum-mit in April this year.

“Its priority would be to scale up and strengthen the vibrant trade, investment, technology and com-mercial linkages between India and other maritime nations,” he said.

The prime minister also released a photo essay book on the “Maritime Heritage of India”.

Modi said world politics in present times was “turbulent”, and its challenges were “complex”.

Observing that a major part of the world economy was based on sea activities, the prime minister said the oceans were the “lifelines of global prosperity”.

“They (oceans) present us with great economic opportunities to build our nations. Over 90 per-cent of global merchandise trade is carried on the oceans,” Modi said, adding that oceans were also critical for global energy security as over 60 percent of the world’s oil production moves through sea routes.

Modi also spoke of terror and other threats which emerge from the seas. He identified sea-borne terror and piracy as major threats.

“The threat of sea-borne terror, of which India has been a direct victim, continues to endanger the regional and global peace and sta-bility,” Modi said. He added that the threat of natural disasters like tsuna-mis and cyclones was ever present.

Modi expressed concern over manmade problems such as oil spills, climate change which con-tinue to pose a risk to the stability of the maritime domain.

“A peaceful and stable maritime environment is, therefore, critical for the regional and global security. It is also a must to harvest the riches of the oceanic ecosystems,” Modi stated.

IANS

FEROZEPUR: BSF troopers yes-terday shot dead four smugglers, including two Pakistanis, in Pun-jab’s Ferozepur sector and seized nearly 10kg heroin, a senior BSF officer said.

The Border Security Force troopers also seized arms and ammunition from the spot. These included two 9 mm pistols, one locally-made pistol and 54 rounds of ammunition, a Pakistani SIM card, a knife, a PVC pipe and other things.

“Around 4.30am, Pakistani and Indian smugglers (total numbering four) opened fire on BSF troopers near Border outpost (BoP) Meh-ndipur in Ferozepur sector. The BSF troopers returned the fire in which two Indian and two Paki-stani smugglers were interdicted. The bodies were recovered later during a search of the area.

BSF shoots dead four smugglers in Punjab

Navies need to cooperate and not compete: PM‘The threat of sea-borne terror, of which India has been a direct victim, continues to endanger the regional and global peace and stability’

IANS

PALDEV: The government is con-sidering a policy whereby the contractors assigned to clean the Ganga river will maintain it as well, union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said yesterday.

“We are considering a policy whereby the contractors hired for cleaning the river will also main-tain it for 10 years,” said the union minister.

The policy would be in line with the Golden Quadrilateral - a 5,846-km network of highways connecting important industrial, agricultural and cultural centres across the country

- where the contractors who built it now maintain it as well.

Javadekar, the minister of state for environment, forest and cli-mate change, was also upbeat about the progress of the ‘clean Ganga’ campaign.

The level of pollution in the river is now one third of what it was one year ago, he said.

“European countries also take time to clean their rivers. The Ganga will be cleaned in the next 10 years. It will be like the Thames in 20 years,” Javadekar said during a visit to Pal-dev gram panchayat - a cluster of six villages - which he adopted in November 2014.

Javadekar said the discharge of industrial pollutants into the river had

been significantly reduced.He said the installation of

Online Continuous Effluent Mon-itoring Systems has been a success and therefore the government would like to strengthen it more in the days to come.

The minister said out of the 764 polluting industries, 514 units have already installed the monitoring sys-tem and they are now able to keep a tab on the units’ daily activities via an SMS.

Some 150 units that did not respond to the plans have been shut down, he said.

The Central Pollution Control Board had formulated an action plan for reduction of industrial pol-lution in the Ganga. The key culprits

are five industrial sectors - sugar, paper and pulp, distilleries, textiles and tannery.

The CPCB is directly monitoring the progress of the implementation of the action plan. It also carried out inspections of 130 industries since December last year.

The minister was here on Sun-day to oversee the construction of a primary school and a water pond-reservoir.

He held informal meetings with teachers and farmers and discussed ways to increase the pass percent-age in high school and crop yield respectively.

The day-long visit saw the min-ister interacting with the locals, including women self-help groups.

‘Clean Ganga’ campaign on track: Minister

Two kidney failure patients

get fresh lease of life

Parrikar rules out withdrawal of troops from SiachenIANS

VISAKHAPATNAM: Terming the recent death of 10 soldiers in an avalanche on the Siachen glacier “painful”, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said yesterday that with-drawing troops from the world’s highest battlefield could not be a solution.

“This incident is painful to me personally, but the solution that is

suggested is not a proper analysis,” he said, referring to demands that Indian soldiers be withdrawn from the glacier.

Asked if the proposal to convert Siachen into a “peace mountain” still exists, the minister said: “The deci-sion (on deploying troops) on Siachen is based on the security of the nation.”

He said the loss of human lives on the Siachen had come down in recent years due to improved facilities.

“We have lost thousands of sol-diers to get control (of the glacier)...

The loss of life is less in the last few years,” he told reporters on the side-lines of an International Maritime Conference.

He said the incident had noth-ing to do with preparedness. “I don’t find any loose ends. It’s an avalanche... These are unpredictable in nature.”

Parrikar said the search operation was on though there was little hope of survival of the soldiers.

“The hope of any survival is nil. They are covered in tonnes of ice,” he said.

Then prime minister Manmo-han Singh suggested in 2005 that the world’s highest battlefield be converted into a “peace mountain” without redrawing the boundaries between India and Pakistan.

India and Pakistan maintain per-manent military presence at heights of over 6,000 metres or 20,000 feet. Both have lost many men to extreme cold in the area where temperature can dip to minus 50 degrees Celsius.

The army has meanwhile deployed advanced equipment to

search for its men. These include wall penetrating radars.

Ten soldiers, including a Junior Commissioned Officer, were buried on Wednesday after an avalanche hit their post located 19,000 feet above the sea level on the southern side of the glacier.

Meanwhile, Parrikar also empha-sised the need to evolve mechanisms to resolve disputes at sea peacefully.

“In the changing economic situ-ation, the scenario of finding more and more resources in deep seas is

changing. Original laws and treaties may not be of much use... we need to find ways to resolve disputes more peacefully,” Parrikar said.

Parrikar pointed out that impor-tance of oceans will increase in future as land availability will shrink due to rise in water levels due to glo-bal warming. “Oceans have always directly or indirectly influenced events on land. At present too, besides power projection, oceans are increas-ingly being looked upon as resource provider,” he said.

IANS

NEW DELHI: Two kidney failure patients got a fresh lease of life yes-terday thanks to the noble deed of a family in donating organs of a brain-dead patient and some timely help from Delhi Police.

A 38-km ‘green corridor’ was created to transport the harvested kidneys from the Max Super Spe-ciality Hospital in Shalimar Bagh to Vasant Kunj where the two end-stage kidney failure patients were admitted in a hospital, the hospital said in a statement.

While it took only 37 min-utes and 45 seconds for a team of experts and police to deliver the organs harvested from a 62-year-old brain-haemorrhaged woman patient, a team of doctors - Dr Sonal Gupta, Dr Waheed Zaman and Dr Vikas Aggarwal - worked

for more than eight hours to ensure a smooth harvesting and trans-planting procedure.

“The team worked tirelessly to ensure that the two kidney trans-plants are carried out successfully. The noble decision of the donorÂ’s family has given a new lease of life to two people. We are proud to be a part of such a brave act. We hope millions of others take inspiration from the family of the 62-year old lady,” Dr Zaman said.

On January 7, a 32km green corridor from the same hospital in Shalimar Bagh to its Saket branch facilitated transportation of the heart of a 17-year-old road acci-dent victim in 45 minutes 27 seconds. The heart was transplanted into a 46-year-old woman with dilated cardiomyopathy and suffering from end-stage heart failure.

The doctors at the hospital expressed satisfaction after the suc-cessful surgery.

People dressed up in different colourful costumes pass through the streets during the carnival procession in Wloclawek, Poland, yesterday. The last Sunday of carnival is considered the last opportunity to celebrate and eat rich food before the start of the 40-day Lent period.

Carnival fever

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi delivers a speech at the political training school of the Democratic Party in Rome, Italy, yesterday.

Political training school

EUROPE16 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

We urge the Prime Minister to refrain from showing any disrespect to the loyals who helped him win a majority government, some 40 local party associations said

Reuters

LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron is facing a revolt from among his Conservatives for encour-aging lawmakers to ignore their local party’s views on an upcoming Euro-pean Union membership referendum.

Cameron has said he will back stay-ing in the EU if a draft deal on Britain’s future relationship published this week is agreed by other EU leaders, but many in his party, which is deeply divided over Europe, do not plan to back his

position. Earlier this week Cameron told parliament that lawmakers should not decide which side to campaign for based on what their local party group might say, instead telling them to do what they think “is right for Britain”.

The comments have provoked an angry response from party members, who said they had undermined the goodwill Cameron had gained from promising the referendum in the first place.

“We urge the prime minister to refrain from showing any disrespect to the loyal servants who helped him win a majority government,” representatives

of more than 40 local party associa-tions wrote in a letter to the Sunday Telegraph.

“It is deeply regrettable that the prime minister dismisses the very people who helped secure his victory, and he should remember that no prime minister has a divine right to rule.”

A survey of 144 of the Conservative’s 330 lawmakers conducted by the Sun-day Times newspaper found 57 percent of those who had made up their mind planned to campaign to leave the bloc.

Cameron, who promised the mem-bership vote in part due to pressure from eurosceptic members of his party,

hopes it will help settle the long-run-ning splits within the Conservatives over Europe.

The internal rifts over Britain’s involvement in the European Union have dogged the party for decades and contributed to the downfall of two pre-vious Conservative prime ministers, Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

The EU’s draft text addressed all four areas where Cameron wants reform. While officials claimed victory in winning concessions to stem migra-tion and to boost British sovereignty, eurosceptics said Britain’s demands had been watered down.

Reuters

MADRID: A majority of Spaniards favour a coalition government led by the Socialist party PSOE and mar-ket-friendly newcomer Ciudadanos, according to a poll published by El Pais newspaper yesterday as Spain’s political deadlock continues.

Spain has yet to form a gov-ernment seven weeks after an inconclusive December 20 election in which no party won enough votes to govern. Newer parties, particularly the anti-austerity Podemos and the liberal Ciudadanos, grabbed votes from mainstream rivals.

A coalition led by the Spanish

Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and Ciudadanos is supported by 51 per-cent of Spaniards according to the poll of 1,000 people, carried out shortly after Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez was given a mandate by the king on Tuesday to try to form a government.

All other possible coalitions received an approval rating of less than 50 percent, the survey showed.

The Socialists started talks to form a coalition on Wednesday, a task seen as impossible unless sev-eral political parties drop some conditions.

Sanchez was formally nominated to try to replace the centre-right Peo-ple’s Party (PP), which won most votes in the election but acting Prime

Minister Mariano Rajoy deferred a parliamentary confidence vote on a new government as he lacked the support to win it.

Given the fragmentation of par-liament, the Socialists would need the backing of at least three parties to achieve a simple majority of seats while several others would have to abstain.

Sanchez, who has said he needs at least a month before seeking a confidence vote in parliament, has appointed a six-strong team to han-dle the negotiations.

The failure to reach a coalition so far raises the prospect of a new round of elections later this year. However, a new election would likely deliver the same political deadlock.

Reuters

MADRID: Spanish police arrested seven people with suspected links to Islamist militant groups yesterday in a dawn raid in the Mediterranean regions of Alicante and Valencia and in Spain’s north African enclave Ceuta, the Interior Ministry said.

It said those arrested were sus-pected of operating a supply network for Islamist fighters in Syria and Iraq, sending money, guns, computer equipment and material for mak-ing explosives in sealed containers under the guise of humanitarian relief.

Five of the suspects were Span-iards of Syrian, Jordanian and

Moroccan descent and the remaining two were a Syrian and a Moroccan, the ministry said in a statement. Police searched homes, businesses and warehouses as part of the operation.

Yesterday’s swoop was the result of two years of investigation into the ring by authorities. The arrested people had carried out their activ-ities in other European countries before settling in Spain, the minis-try said.

Spain arrested 102 people with suspected links to Islamist mili-tants last year, more than twice the number arrested in the previous year as police stepped up security measures following attacks in Paris in January 2015.

General defends

French response

to massacre in

Rwanda probe

AFP

PARIS: A French general has defended France’s response to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, saying his troops did not give so much as a bullet to the perpetrators and did not immediately grasp the scale of the killing, sources said yesterday.

General Jean-Claude Lafour-cade was questioned over claims that France’s UN-mandated Oper-ation Turquoise, which he led, left ethnic Tutsis to be slaughtered by Hutu killers in the western Bis-esero hills in June 1994, sources close to the case said.

French soldiers had been deployed in Rwanda a few days earlier under UN instructions to stop the genocide that had begun in April, and which three months later had left at least 800,000 peo-ple dead, most of them Tutsis.

Lafourcade, who appeared as an “assisted witness” —meaning he has not been charged but can be summoned for questioning at any time —again refuted the accusa-tions during lengthy hearings on January 12 and 14, the sources said.

The retired general, now 72, dismissed as “completely false” allegations that French sol-diers supplied arms to the Hutu extremists.

“I will say it again here. No munitions, not even a bullet, was given by Operation Turquoise” to the Hutus, Lafourcade told a judge. “Where the French soldiers were, there were no massacres nor abuses.”

“It took some time for the reality of the genocide to sink in seeing... the presence of mass graves, burned villages,” he added.

There was “a general under-est imat ion —French and international —of the involve-ment of local and government authorities.”

In 2005 survivors filed a com-plaint in France, saying the French troops had on June 27, 1994 vowed to return to Bisesero, but when they came back three days later, it was too late for hundreds of Tut-sis who were massacred.

Lafourcade said he was short staffed, with a unit of 120-130 soldiers and had as priority the “evacuation of the sisters of Kibuye” nuns in western Rwanda.

Ukraine claims

finding arms

linked to

2014 protest

AFP

KIEV: Ukrainian investigators said they had found a cache of 24 guns implicated in a bloody crack-down on pro-EU demonstrators in February 2014 that led to the downfall of the country’s pro-Rus-sian leader.

The cache comprised disman-tled parts from 23 Kalashnikov assault rifles and a high-precision rifle that had been assigned to a now-dissolved special police anti-riot unit called the Berkut, they said. The SBU security service and the public prosecutor said that the guns had been found buried at a site on the outskirts of Kiev after they had been immersed in a nearby lake and their serial numbers removed.

The weapons had been assigned to Berkut personnel who had been deployed in Kiev’s Maidan Square on February 20, 2014, when about 50 demonstra-tors were killed, officials said.

However, further tests will be needed to confirm if they were actu-ally used, said Sergi Gorbatyuk, in charge of an investigative panel at the prosecutor’s office.

2 killed in blast at

biodiesel plant

MADRID: Two workers were killed and a third was seri-ously injured in an explosion at a biodiesel plant in Spain regional emergency services said.

The explosion took place at a factory of Biocom Energia, which specialises in the produc-tion of biodiesel fuel. It is located in Algemesi, around 30km south of Valencia.

The victims of the blast were maintenance employees working at the factory, local authorities said without giving further details.

A fire also broke out at the site but it was brought under control by firefighters.

Police have opened an inquiry into what caused the explosion.

Cameron faces revolt from partymen on EU

Seven arrested in Spain

over suspected jihad links

Policemen escorting a man who was arrested as part of an operation against jihadism in Crevillente, Valencia, eastern Spain, yesterday.

Majority of Spaniards prefer centre-left coalition: Poll

EUROPE 17MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Even as winter bears down on Europe and European Union countries, tens of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia are desperate to embark on the weeks-long journey across the Aegean Sea

AP

PRESEVO, SERBIA: Rasul Orwani thought he had faced the worst after braving cold, rough seas in a rickety wooden boat to travel from Turkey to Greece, then came the Balkans.

After arriving in Macedonia with dozens of other migrants, the group crossed into Serbia on foot in the mid-dle of the night, icy snow stinging their eyes and lacing the children’s faces with tears.

Their heads bent low to protect from the cold, the migrants trudged slowly through the snow, carrying babies, small children and belong-ings along the 2km stretch of the road over the so-called green boundary between the two Balkan nations. A 10-year-old boy took a blanket from his shoulders to wrap it around his younger sister as they walked across the frozen landscape hand in hand.

Even as winter bears down on Europe and European Union countries set up new administrative hurdles for their entry, tens of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia have been desperate enough to embark on the weeks-long jour-ney across the Aegean Sea and along the so-called Balkan migrant corridor where frigid weather and stricter bor-der controls have turned an already tough journey into an even more treacherous one.

Safe in the Serbian town of Pre-sevo on the border with Macedonia, Orwani said there was no turning back. “Our trip is very dangerous and risky,” the 20-year-old Orwani said. “We crossed the sea, we were in a boat, and the waves in the sea could easily sink us in the water.”

While Europe took in more than 1 million people in 2015, EU countries have been struggling to limit the big-gest migration to the continent since World War II. Some countries along the migrant route have said they want to slow the influx or even completely block it. Some of the nations imposed new, stricter regulations for those transiting toward their ultimate goal, Germany or other rich west European countries.

As a result, dozens of refugees have been turned back from the borders amid freezing winter temper-atures, while others have faced border closures and long hours in registration centers and refugee camps. Experts say the measures are unlikely to stop the flow, but could instead prompt the refugees to again start using illegal routes over razor-wire border fences and through forests, pushing them into the hands of ruthless smugglers.

Aid groups say migrants pass-ing through the Balkans have faced

difficulty traveling in the snow and ice, and there has been a surge in cold-related illnesses.

Women, children and babies, in particular, are in danger of hypo-thermia, according to the Save the Children aid group. It said migrants have been arriving in Serbia with blue lips, distressed and shaking from the cold. Exhausted mothers have told the group’s aid workers they are unable to keep their babies warm and dry, and are stumbling while carrying them on the icy roads.

Saymira, from Afghanistan, crossed into Serbia with her hus-band and two young children just days before Orwani. Two months before her father and young sister died in the sea trying to reach a Greek Island from Turkey. “Now I am very sad, I cannot tolerate this situation,” she said while pushing a baby stroller through the snow on the border path between Macedonia and Serbia. Saymira said she was on her way to Germany because she has relatives there.

Most refugees are not used to win-ter conditions, and many set off from home countries without warm clothing. Mirjana Milenkovski, the spokeswoman for the UN Refugee Agency in Serbia, said refugees are being provided heated shelter, bus transfers, warm drinks and clothes as they pass through Serbia and other countries.

From Serbia, migrants pack trains and buses to get to Serbia’s border with Croatia. There, they again wait in refugee centers to head to another registration center in Croatia, where authorities go through the lists and check their refugee papers.

From Croatia, migrants go on to Slovenia and after more registration and checkups, they move on to Aus-tria and then Germany. Dozens drop

Harsh winter and border limits add to migrant woes

out along the way, with authorities in each of the countries conducting their own selection procedures.

The International Organisation for Migration said 368 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean in January, nearly one in six of them children, as minors make up a growing percentage of those making the treacherous trip.

As Orwani made it to the Greek shores last month, dozens of others weren’t so lucky. Two other unsea-worthy boats carrying migrants sank, killing 46 people — many of them chil-dren — and highlighting the plight of people ready to risk their own lives and those of their children to start a new life somewhere free of war and poverty.

Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia first said they were letting in only people from war-ravaged Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. New

restrictions were imposed in Janu-ary with only those seeking asylum in Germany or Austria being let through. This means all others are sent back from the borders, where they often seek smugglers’ help to continue through clandestine routes.

Macedonia has recently started periodically closing its border with Greece, leaving thousands of desperate migrants stranded for days in a make-shift camp without any official word when they could continue their journey.

In addition, anti-immigra-tion sentiment has been on the rise throughout Europe since the terror attacks in Paris in November and the New Year’s Eve assaults on women in Germany. Austria said it will take 37,500 refugees this year and a total of 127,500 through 2019.

Countries like tiny Slovenia have

urged immediate EU action to control the flow — or even stop it completely on the Greek-Macedonian border— before the expected spring surge of asylum seekers when the weather gets warmer. In the Presevo refugee cen-tre, Orwani was waiting patiently for his turn to register. He said he wanted to go to Germany, which — since he’s from Afghanistan — means he might be allowed through. After crossing the Aegean Sea, Orwani said nothing else can be nearly as hard.

Orwani said he had never seen the sea until he boarded a small wooden boat in Turkey last month and set off with dozens of other migrants deter-mined to reach Europe. The sea was rough and cold and Orwani’s boat had engine trouble, barely making it to a Greek island. But, he says it was worth the risk.

Polls paint

mixed picture

for Irish PMReuters

DUBLIN: Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s conservative party halted a recent slide in popularity according to one opinion poll, but fell sharply in another, maintaining the potential for an inconclusive outcome at upcoming elections.

Ireland votes on February 26 in what promises to be a tight contest that opinion polls suggest may fail to produce a stable government.

Kenny’s Fine Gael, whose sup-port had risen steadily all year until a slight dip as the election campaign was about to begin, rose two percentage points to 31 per-cent in the Sunday Business Post/Red C poll, five points behind its 2011 election mark.

However it fell three points to 28 percent in the Sunday Times/Behaviour & Attitudes survey.

Kenny will need the back-ing of junior coalition partners Labour to return to power. Labour held steady on 10 percent in the Red C survey and was two points higher than previously, at 8 per-cent, according to the Behaviour & Attitudes findings.

At a combined 41 percent in the more favourable poll, the parties would be six seats short of the 80 needed to secure a majority, according to Adrian Kavanagh, a politics lec-turer at National University of Ireland, Maynooth. However another closely watched poll put their support sub-stantially lower on 35 percent.

Kenny’s party’s improve-ment in the Red C poll was at the expense of left-wing challenger Sinn Fein, which fell two points to 17 percent, level in second place with the centre-right Fianna Fail.

Sinn Fein was on the same mark in the Behaviour & Atti-tudes poll, while Fianna Fail was unchanged on 20 percent. Red C analyst Richard Colwell said that with 25 percent of so-called “float-ing” voters trusting Fine Gael on the economy in its survey ver-sus low single-digits for the other main parties, Kenny’s party has the potential to gain further support.

AP

SARAJEVO: When Mirzana Coralic asked the primary school in her Sara-jevo neighbourhood whether they would enroll her deaf son, teacher Sanela Ljumanovic volunteered with-out thinking much about it.

Then September came and 6-year-old Zejd was there, silently sitting on one of the school’s benches. At the time, no one at the school, not even Zejd, knew sign language.

“We have to come up with some-thing here,” Ljumanovic remembers thinking.

She tried to develop her own tricks and signs to communicate with Zejd but a parent had another idea, proposing that the whole class learn sign language with him.

Three months later, the first-graders of class 1-2 at Osman Nakas primary school in Sarajevo have mas-tered the basics of sign language to communicate with their classmate.

“Zejd,” said Uma Nadarevic, 6, crossing her arms to sign his name. “Please,” she then put her palms together as if she would be praying. “Can ... you ...show ...me ...our ...home-work ...in ... math?” Uma waved the signs with her little arms as she slowly pronounced each word.

Zejd grabbed his notebook out of a bag and showed her the circles and squares he drew at home. Uma signed “Thank you” and Zejd bowed a “you are welcome.”

In 2003, Bosnia adopted laws that allow children with disabilities to be fully integrated into society, including schools. Children with special needs are supposed to have professional assistants who sit with them in class, translating or helping them partic-ipate. But in practice, impoverished Bosnia barely has enough money to keep normal schools functioning and children with disabilities are left to the care and imagination of their par-ents and the good will of school staff.

Zejd was lucky — and his teach-ers say the effort being put in by all is boosting his self-esteem.

“He looks forward to going to school,” said his mother, who tried to learn the sign language with him before school started but says he was not very interested in it. “Now he is happy and motivated.”

Still, Zejd is an exception in Bos-nian society, said Anisa Setkic-Sendic, the sign language teacher who teaches the class. “When he sees how much others insist on communicating with him, it is motivating,” she added.

His classmates are embracing the challenge of new language. “I like to learn Zejd’s language so I can talk to

him and to other deaf people,” said Tarik Sijaric, one of Zejd’s best friends.

“I like this language and I also think it will be useful when I grow up,” added student Anesa Susic.

Zejd is fitting in now and the new language is spreading beyond the classroom, said Ljumanovic. Children are teaching their parents at home.

“We are all happy as we are learn-ing a new language,” she said. “The goal, however, is also to teach Zejd to read lips ... he is a good kid, a smart kid.”

Ljumanovic said she would intro-duce sign language into the curriculum not only to enable communication but because it helps children become more sensitive toward those with disabilities.

AP

BRUSSELS: The Belgian government approved a sweeping plan to combat Islamic radicalism and the threat of extremist violence by hiring 1,000 new police officers over the next four years. The plan, presented by Interior Minister Jan Jambon, calls for add-ing 300 officers this year, and more than 500 by 2017.

“The impact that we are look-ing for is to maximise security in this country and in Brussels and in all of the other cities of the country,” Jambon said. The gov-ernment’s decision, he said, will mean “a lot more police officers in the battle against terrorism.” The November attacks that killed 130 people in Paris were staged from Belgium, and subsequent official investigations have revealed how ineffective the surveillance of sus-pected radicals in the country has often been.

Belgium has also been one of the prime European recruiting grounds for foreign fighters enlisted by the Islamic State extremist group.

Jambon said 300 new officers will be added in Molenbeek and other neighborhoods of greater Brussels with a history of radical

Islamist activity. Ninety-six police investigators will be hired, and 260 TV cameras positioned to monitor movements on the highways.

The plan also includes funds for more judges, police snipers, compu-ter equipment, DNA scanners, prison guards and training of Muslim reli-gious leaders. Law enforcement personnel will also be reinforced at Belgian airports and on the coun-try’s North Sea coast. Prime Minister Charles Michel told a joint news conference with Jambon and other members of the federal government that 103 new hires will be made in the Belgian state security services.

In a tweet, the prime minister put the overall price tag of Belgium’s security upgrade at €300m ($334m).

Molenbeek, the gritty indus-trial district in western Brussels that was home to suspected Paris attackers, became the symbol of the presence of Muslim radical-ism in Belgium and the inability of authorities to stamp it out. Jambon said 50 of the new police hires will quickly be deployed there.

Francoise Schepmans, Molen-beek’s mayor, expressed satisfaction at the decision. The new arrivals, she said, “are going to assist the local officers, the police who collect infor-mation on the ground and investigate who lives where.”

Bosnians protest

against hijab

ban in judiciary

AFP

SARAJEVO: Some 2,000 people, mostly women, protested yester-day in downtown Sarajevo against a recent ban on wearing a hijab headscarf in the majority Muslim country’s judicial institutions.

“We gathered to protest against prejudices, discrimination and marginalisation,” Samira Zunic Velagic, one of the protest organ-isers, told the crowd.

“The ban of wearing hijab in judicial insititious is a serious attack against Muslim honour, per-sonality and identity, a violation ... aimed at depriving them of their right to work,” she added.

The protest was sparked by a recent decision of Bosnia’s high judicial council, a body tasked with supervising the functioning of the judiciary, to ban “religious signs” in judicial institutions.

The decision which concerns judges and other employees in the sector, but does explicitly men-tion hijab —a scarf which covers hair, ears and neck —was strongly condemned by Bosnia’s Mulism political and religious leaders as well as numerous local Muslim associations.

A group of migrants who crossed the border without valid documents, escorted by police back to Greece near Gevgelija, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, yesterday.

Belgium to hire more cops to curb radicalism

A participant holds up a placard as hundreds of Muslim women wearing the traditional hijab protest at Sarajevo’s historical centre, yesterday.

Bosnian first-graders reach out to deaf schoolmate

Fireworks burst over the New York skyline, the Empire State Building lit in red and gold in honour of the Chinese Lunar New Year, yesterday.

Fireworks over NY skyline

AMERICAS18 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Reuters

WASHINGTON: The rapidly spread-ing Zika virus is discouraging many Americans from traveling to Latin America and the Caribbean, with 41 percent of those aware of the dis-ease saying they are less likely to take such a trip, a Reuters and Ipsos poll shows.

The poll is the latest sign the virus, suspected to be linked to thousands of birth defects in Bra-zil, could depress travel to popular cold-weather getaways in the com-ing months.

Airlines and cruise ship oper-ators have yet to report drops in bookings because of Zika, and ana-lysts have downplayed the impact that newly sedentary parents-to-be could have on their revenue.

Still, awareness of the mosquito-borne virus has surged to nearly two-thirds of Americans, accord-ing to the poll of 1,595 adults in the United States conducted between February 1 and 5. That compares with 45 percent who had heard of Zika in a poll from late January.

“I am actively trying to get preg-nant with my husband, so I am a little bit concerned,” said Erica, a respondent who said she was bit-ten by a mosquito during a January trip to the US Virgin Islands, where Zika has been reported.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has

advised pregnant women to avoid travel to areas with an active out-break of Zika, and the World Health Organisation has declared an inter-national emergency over the disease.

Erica, who asked only to be iden-tified by her first name for personal reasons, said she no longer plans to visit Jamaica this summer to cele-brate her wedding anniversary.

“We’ve definitely gone back to the drawing board on that,” she said, referring to the island, which is on the CDC warning list.

Of those aware of the virus, 41 percent said they were less likely to travel to Puerto Rico, Mexico or South America in the next 12 months because of Zika, the poll found. Some 48 percent said Zika had not changed the likelihood of their vis-iting those destinations, while others did not know.

Six out of 10 Americans aware of Zika said the virus concerned them, including 18 percent who said they were very concerned, according to the poll.

“It’s contagious, and it’s new,” said respondent Toni Brockington, 42, who lives near Fort Bragg, Cali-fornia, and had considered visiting Mexico before learning about the outbreak. “The virus, along with the reports of violence and drugs and tourist ransoms, is making it less and less attractive.”

Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes the birth defect microcephaly. Brazil is investigat-ing the potential link between Zika infections and more than 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly, a condition marked by abnormally small head size that can result in developmental problems.

Researchers have identified evidence of Zika infection in 17 of these cases, either in the baby or in the mother, but have not confirmed that Zika can cause microcephaly.

The poll of Americans’ concerns and travel plans have a credibility interval - a measure of accuracy - of 3.8 percentage points.

Reuters

NEW YORK/BRASILIA: Experts on microcephaly, the birth defect that has sparked alarm in the current Zika virus outbreak, say they are struck by the severity of a small number of cases they have reviewed from Brazil.

Consultations among doctors in Brazil and the United States have increased in the last two weeks, and some of the leading authorities on the condition are finding patterns of unusual devastation in scans of the newborns’ malformed brains.

While it’s not known how rep-resentative the scans are, the early observations of these doctors point to a tough road ahead for the babies, their families and their communities and heighten the concern surround-ing Zika, which is suspected of causing microcephaly.

“We are in the process of very rapid information gathering on what has been seen,” said Dr. William Dobyns, a genet-icist at Seattle Children’s Hospital. “The

condition that I’ve been able to review, very preliminarily, is more severe than simple microcephaly.”

The Zika virus is transmitted by mosquito, causing mild symptoms in about 20 percent of cases, and most people experience no illness at all. But a spike in reported microcephaly cases among babies in areas of Brazil with Zika outbreaks has triggered an inter-national effort to determine whether the virus causes the condition. The sus-pected association moved the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare an international health emergency.

Dobyns has spent 30 years researching and treating microceph-aly, a condition defined by abnormally small heads in newborns that can lead to developmental disabilities, from mild to severe. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has sought out his expertise in understanding the unfolding epidemic.

With a small group of geneticists and other microcephaly specialists, he recently reviewed scans of a handful of babies sent by a colleague in Bra-zil. All the experts were struck by the

scale of malformations, he said.“These children have a very severe

form of microcephaly,” Dobyns said. “The brain is not just small, it’s small with malformations of the cerebral cortex and calcifications. It has the appearance of a very severe, destruc-tive injury to the brain.”

Particularly alarming, Dobyns said, is the presence in the Brazilian cases of excess spinal fluid between the brain and skull of the babies.

“If the brain is growing and then suddenly shrinks, then you’ll see fluid between the brain and skull,” he said. “It has a pattern that suggests that the brain has actually decreased in size.”

Dr Leonardo Vedolin, a neuroradi-ologist and researcher at the Moinhos de Vento hospital in Porto Alegre, Bra-zil, shared with Dobyns scans of two more microcephalic babies this week. The doctors belong to a brain defects study group that convenes via video-conference each month. The group is now focused on Zika.

Neither Vedolin nor Brazil’s Health Ministry were able to provide the break-down on the severity of confirmed

microcephaly cases. In general, Vedolin said, 5 percent of microcephaly cases are severe. But the proportion appears greater among the cases in Brazil, he said.

Public health officials in Brazil are investigating more than 4,000 cases of suspected microcephaly, and have confirmed more than 400. Prior to the Zika outbreak, Brazil saw on average 163 cases annually of microcephaly over the past five years, according to WHO. In 17 of the new cases, the presence of Zika was identified in the mother or the baby. A study of 35 Brazilian babies born with microceph-aly during the Zika outbreak added strength to the suspected connection.

Mothers of all 35 infants had lived in or visited Zika virus-affected areas dur-ing pregnancy. Twenty-five infants had severe microcephaly, and 17 had at least one neurologic abnormality.

Dr Frank Esper, an infectious dis-ease expert from Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, said he expects a steady wave of studies on Zika and microcephaly that will pro-vide a much clearer picture over the first half of 2016.

Reuters

PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haitian lead-ers have agreed to install a caretaker government to take over from Presi-dent Michel Martelly when he leaves power without an elected successor, a move that failed to calm protest-ers who clashed with police again.

The agreement was reached less than 24 hours before Martelly steps down. Under the deal parliament will elect an interim president for a four-month term.

The temporary president, expected to be chosen in the next few days, will be committed to hold-ing delayed presidential elections by April 24 and handing power to the winner the following month.

A presidential runoff due to be held last month was scrapped after opposi-tion candidate Jude Celestin threatened to boycott the vote over allegations of fraud in the first round, and protesters took to the streets in force. Port-au-Prince has seen almost daily protests by both opposition and government sup-porters since January, culminating in the lynching of a former soldier during a march on Friday.

The agreement did not placate all sectors of the opposition. Dur-ing the signing in an annex of the presidential palace that survived a devastating earthquake six years ago, small groups of anti-govern-ment protesters clashed outside with riot police who used a water canon and tear gas to disperse them.

“Despite this agreement, we will need to continue to remain vigilant because there are people who won’t agree,” Martelly said at an event with foreign diplomats at the palace.

“Every time they exercise violence Haiti makes one step backward,” Mar-telly said of the protesters.

Any caretaker government will have to overcome deep disagree-ments about how the election should be organised and which candidates can participate, since many oppo-sition politicians are convinced the first round vote was riddled with fraud that favored ruling party candidate Jovenel Moise. The gov-ernment denies the allegations.

A senior adviser to Celestin, Ger-ald Germain, said his camp had yet to study the agreement in depth and would make its position known later.

Martelly’s own election five years ago was seen by many in the oppo-sition as being facilitated by foreign pressure. His departure from office coincides with the 30th anniversary of dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s flight from the country.

Instead of stable democracy, the years since the end of the Duvalier family’s 29-year regime on February 7, 1986 have been marked by frequent coups and transitional governments. The impoverished country has had a chequered experience with caretaker governments, which in the past have lingered longer than expected.

When Haiti was left without an elected president after Jean-Ber-trand Aristide was forced from power in 2004, it took the transi-tional administration two years to organise elections.

Failure to hold clean elections before Martelly’s term ended means Haiti is again left bitterly divided.

Sandra Honore, who heads the United Nations peacekeeping mission that has been in Haiti since Aristide’s ouster, called on all sides to support the agreement.

Many Americans drop LatAm visit over Zika fearsOf those aware of the virus, 41 percent said they were less likely to travel to Puerto Rico, Mexico or South America in the next 12 months

Two die in oil

rig fire off

Mexico coast

MEXICO CITY: Two workers were killed and at least seven injured yesterday in an oil platform fire off the coast of Mexico, state pet-rol company Pemex said.

The blaze broke out in a “com-pression area” on the rig located in state of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico, Pemex reported. It said nine injured workers were airlifted away for medical treatment and added later that two workers died.

The fire was brought under control and the platform did not need to be evacuated, Pemex added.Two Pemex installations in the same area suffered explosions last year, one of which killed four people. Pemex is a key source of income for Mexico’s government. It has suffered lately from falling world oil prices and from theft of oil by criminal gangs.

AFP

RIO DE JANEIRO: Swatting aside fears over the Zika virus, the glitter-ing dancers of the Rio Carnival samba championship and their adoring fans were primed yesterday for their first all-night parade.

After a fortnight of street par-ties and the day and night sound of drumming and singing throughout Brazil’s most iconic city, the really serious Carnival began. Kicking off after sunset and going all through the night to dawn on today , the 12 best

samba ensembles, known as schools, were to strut their stuff in front of some 70,000 people in Rio’s specially built stadium, the Sambadrome. The contest, which goes through a second and final night on today, is the climax of the annual Rio Carnival, possibly the world’s biggest party, with some five million people, including one mil-lion tourists, estimated to take part.

This year, Rio’s fiesta is over-shadowed by the Zika virus, painful recession, battles over the impeach-ment of President Dilma Rousseff and a corruption scandal reaching into the heart of the political and business elite.

The gloomy backdrop extends to

a fall in funding for the hugely expen-sive samba school extravaganzas, whose floats and costumes for thou-sands of dancers and musicians take a year to prepare. The productions in Rio are expected to be less over the top this year, while in 48 Brazilian cities, the Carnival was cancelled altogether.

There’s no less excitement at the Sambadrome where fans are vehement in their allegiance to a par-ticular school.

For all their perfect choreogra-phy and literally dazzling costumes, the samba schools rely on the enthu-siasm of amateur performers.

Each school is rooted in a specific

neighborhood, many of them deeply impoverished favelas, where there may not be proper sanitation but music is king.

Schools like Beija-Flor, Salgueiro or Mangueira that make it to the night parades are the cream of more than 100 ensembles across the city. Each gets about an hour to parade through the Sambadrome, with a themed set of costumes and floats that are not only lavishly decorated but have moving parts, so that they, too, seem alive. The event is so important, that the mayor even symbolically hands over the city keys to King Momo, the elected leader of the Carnival.

Doctors puzzled over severity of defects in babies

Haiti leaders agree to interim govt

Rio Carnival dances toward wild finale

People join soldiers in the fight against aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits Zika virus, as well as viral diseases such as dengue and chikungunya, in Tegucigalpa, yesterday.

AMERICAS 17MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016AMERICAS 19

Initially advertised as a pancake breakfast, his campaign took pleasure in announcing it was so oversubscribed they were forced to reclassify it as a town hall

A military task force of 2,000 is now devoted to holding just 91 men at the detention centre, a number expected to drop by a third this summer

AFP

LONDONDERRY, UNITED STATES: Marco Rubio, the young Republican senator fast building momentum in the race for the White House, came back swinging yesterday after a maul-ing in the latest presidential debate for his lack of experience.

The charismatic Florida senator floundered, just days before the crucial New Hampshire primary tomorrow. He was mocked for repeating the same rehearsed line over and over.

Yesterday he fought back, tell-ing ABC News that his campaign had raised more money last night in the first hour of the debate—precisely when he appeared to come undone—than in any other debate.

“Let’s dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing,” Rubio said on a loop in clips seized upon by Democrats and doing the rounds on social media.

“As far as that message, I hope they keep running it and I’m going to keep saying because it’s true,” Rubio

told ABC.Next stop was a town hall event in

the town of Londonderry, New Hamp-shire to address a crowd of hundreds packed into a school hall.

Initially advertised as a pancake breakfast, his campaign took pleasure in announcing it was so oversub-scribed they were forced to reclassify it as a town hall, where coffee and muffins would be served.

“We couldn’t figure out how to make pancakes for 800 people,” quipped a relaxed and confident Rubio, warming up the crowd with jokes about the Super Bowl and mak-ing no mention of his debate drubbing.

He spoke eloquently about his par-ents’ struggle as young immigrants from Cuba and the pride they took in being able to own a house and watch their children grow up to have more opportunities than they had.

His personal narrative is a key part of his appeal, reaching out to other immigrant families and tapping into his promise to revive the Ameri-can dream at a time when the middle classes are more squeezed than ever.

Gathered in the school were young families, visitors from out of state, ardent Rubio supporters, others yet to make up their minds and opponents drawn to the political theater.

“I think he was dead on,” said Derek Lafleur, a Ted Cruz supporter, who felt New Jersey Governor Chris Chris-tie had been right to savage Rubio. “I think Rubio sounds very rehearsed and very poished. He doesn’t seem very genuine. Like he said, the 25-sec-ond speech, I agree wholeheartedly with Christie.”

Outside two Democrat cam-paigners made hay by dressing up as robots until Rubio’s team asked them to move aside, but few in the crowd seemed that bothered.

Rubio springs back from debate glitch

Reuters

WASHINGTON: Seven years after the United States banned waterboarding as an interrogation tactic, two Repub-lican presidential candidates said they would revive its use and one of them, billionaire businessman Donald Trump, would go even further.

“I would bring back waterboard-ing and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding,” Trump said during Republican debate on ABC, days before New Hampshire holds its primary for the November 8 election.

Trumps’s rival and a fellow leader in the opinion polls, Senator Ted Cruz

of Texas, said he would only allow limited use of the practice.

Waterboarding —the practice of pouring water over someone’s face to mimic drowning as an interrogation tactic —remains controversial in the United States even after Democratic President Barack Obama banned use of the method days after he took office in 2009.

The Senate Intelligence Commit-tee released a report in 2014, despite the objection of Republicans, that detailed what it called torture tac-tics used by the Central Intelligence Agency, including the extensive use of waterboarding.

Waterboarding came into more common use by the United States during the early days of the wars

in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ameri-can interrogators utilised the tactic to try to garner more information from captives, but critics argued the method never actually yielded any intelligence information.

Republicans have been critical of Obama’s decision to eliminate the practice, saying it telegraphs a position of weakness to the nation’s enemies and concedes that the United States erred in using waterboarding.

Cruz said he would not “bring it back in any sort of widespread use” and noted that he doesn’t believe waterboarding meets the interna-tional definition for torture.

“If it were necessary to, say, pre-vent a city from facing an imminent

terrorist attack, you can rest assured that as commander in chief, I would use whatever enhanced interrogation methods we could to keep this coun-try safe,” Cruz said.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio declined to say definitively whether he would reinstitute the use of waterboarding.

“We should not be discussing in a widespread way the exact tactics that we’re going to use because that allows terrorists to know to practice how to evade us,” Rubio said.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said he would not employ waterboarding.

“Congress has changed the laws and I... think where we stand is the appropriate place,” said Bush.

AFP

MARATHON, UNITED STATES: The young patient writhes on the oper-ating table, kicking its flippers. A team of medical attendants turns it over, revealing an underbelly clut-tered with tumours, some as big as golf balls.

This endangered green sea turtle, about two years old and too young for the staff to know yet whether it is male or female, is infected with fibropapil-lomatosis, a potentially deadly disease caused by a type of herpes virus.

Experts still don’t understand quite how the virus spreads, or what causes it, though some research has pointed to agricultural runoff, pollu-tion and global warming.

As the population of green sea turtles rebounds in and around the Florida Keys, cases of fibropapillo-matosis have exploded too, filling the corridors of the United States’ oldest rescue and rehab facility, known sim-ply as the Turtle Hospital.

“When I first started here 20 years ago, I would do six to eight of these a month,” says veterinar-ian Doug Mader, as he injects a local anesthetic, then cuts off the cauli-flower-like growths with a carbon dioxide laser. “Now we are doing six to eight a week,” he says as the air fills with the smell of saltwater, alco-hol wipes and burning flesh.

Each turtle can require several operations to remove all the tumours, which cover their necks, underbellies, and eyes, blinding them and making it hard for them to find food.

Green sea turtles were first listed as endangered species in 1976, but are now nesting in record numbers

—28,000 nests counted last year in Florida, up from fewer than 500 dec-ades ago.

Their status may be changed from “endangered” to merely “threatened” as early as March. While conserva-tionists celebrate these successes, they also lament that the animals’ envi-ronment is increasingly polluted and hot, as the oceans absorb most of the warmth from human-driven climate change.

The evidence lays before Mader every day in the clinic. “I have this horrible feeling that as the oceans warm we are going to see more and more disease,” he says.

Nestled in a bright green motel complex connected by pebble strewn pathways, the Turtle Hospital opened its doors in 1986, taking in 12 patients in its inaugural year.

Last year, it treated 173 sea turtles —119 of them with fibropapilloma-tosis—according to manager Bette Zirkelbach. These days, the hospital has never been busier. Its staff of 18 and fleet of orange-and-white ambu-lances can be dispatched around the clock to fetch injured turtles.

Zirkelbach says about half the green sea turtles in the area are infected, and the cases are get-ting worse.

Sea turtles with tumours fill Florida hospital

AP

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE: Empty cells outnumber occupied ones. There are fewer prisoners than the assorted medical person-nel to care for them. The number of hunger strikers is down to a handful.

After 14 years, the detention cen-tre on the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appears to be winding down despite opposition in Congress to President Barack Obama’s intent to close the facility, which once held nearly 700 people, and confine the remaining prisoners someplace else.

A military task force of 2,000 is now devoted to holding just 91 men, a number expected to drop by a third this summer.

The military this week allowed journalists inside the detention cen-tre, a cluster of camps encircled by razor wire amid the rolling hills and cactus of southeastern Cuba, for the first time since a series of recent releases brought the population below 100, the lowest number since shortly after it opened to hold sus-pected enemy combatants. Officials portrayed the environment as calmer, with few attacks on the Army soldiers who guard the men and fewer dis-ciplinary problems overall, perhaps related to the fact that for many their long period of confinement is near-ing an end.

“I believe there is some optimism on the part of the detainees who are left here that they might be next,” said Army Col. David Heath, commander of the guard force.

Obama is expected later this month to submit a Guantanamo closure plan to Congress, where it is likely to encounter the same resist-ance that has prevented the president from making good on the vow to close the facility he made shortly after taking office. Soon, however,

officials hope there may be so few prisoners that some of the opposi-tion will melt away.

The remaining prisoners include 34 who authorities have determined can be released without a security risk, most of whom are from Yemen. The US won’t send Yemeni prison-ers to their homeland because it is too unstable and it must find other countries to take them. Lee Wolosky, the State Department’s special envoy for Guantanamo Closure, said in Jan-uary that it was expected to be done by the summer.

The remaining 57 pose a more complex challenge. Some cannot be charged because there is insufficient evidence against them or what there is has been tainted by their treatment in custody. Some were either desig-nated for prosecution or for indefinite detention under the international laws of war. Seven of those in custody are in the early stages of trial by mil-itary commission, including the five men accused of planning and aid-ing the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, and three have been convicted and are serving sentences.

But military commissions have proven to be grindingly slow so the government is looking at “alternative dispositions” that would include trans-ferring them overseas for prosecution in another country, according to an official.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because, declined to say which prisoners or where they might be sent but said they number about a dozen and would be sent to places whose cit-izens were victims of terrorist attacks.

The Justice Department is also considering an argument by lawyers for Guantanamo prisoners that some could be charged in federal court, something that had previously not been considered legally feasible. That option would increase the number who could be charged following court rulings that limited the jurisdiction of mili-tary commissions in terrorism cases.

Wells Dixon, a lawyer for a pris-oner who pleaded guilty in the military commission and is await-ing a chance to testify in the slowly moving September 11 case as part of a plea agreement, welcomed that approach. “I do think as a general matter that if the administration is serious about closing Guantanamo they are going to have to think crea-tively about options like federal court prosecutions,” he said.

The administration official said that through a combination of meas-ures they could reduce the number of prisoners currently held at Guan-tanamo to an “irreducible number,” that could be small enough to make their presence in the United States acceptable to Congress.

“We are looking at ultimately two dozen people who we would be look-ing at holding in the United States. It’s a lot better than 90,” the official said.

At Guantanamo, which held nearly 680 prisoners at its peak in 2003 and about 245 when Obama took office, the dwindling popula-tion has made for a quieter detention centre and one that is only partially being used. Half of the eight blocks in Camp 6 are being used and three of the four in Camp 5. Much of an area known as Camp Delta that used to house hundreds of prisoners is now used for administrative offices.

Waterboarding issue divides Republican hopefuls

Quieter and smaller Guantanamo as debate rages on prison’s fate

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio campaigns at Londonderry High School in Londonderry, New Hampshire, yesterday.

Veterinarians operate on a critically endangered sea turtle with a tumour, which turned out to be an abscess, at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Florida.

Waves crash against a lighthouse as the wind blows at around 100kph, in Boulogne-sur-Mer, northern France, yesterday.

Iranian actress Sahar Ghoreyshi (centre) and cast members of 'Lollipop' at the 34th Fajr Film festival at the Milad tower hall in Tehran, yesterday. The festival runs until February 10.

Fajr festival opens

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KUALA LUMPUR: In a country that pays as much attention to England's soccer Premier League as it does to local politics, one film director is seeking to rekindle lost pride in a national game that has languished in the doldrums for four decades.

Top-grossing Malaysian film-maker Chiu Keng Guan's (pictured), new movie "Ola Bola!" opened on Jan. 28 in cinemas nationwide with the tagline "You Will Believe Again". Belief, however, is in weak supply among football-made Malaysians as the country slides down the glo-bal rankings of governing body FIFA.

"I want to bring back the golden era. We have to believe in something to go further," said Chiu, whose last movie The Journey raked in 17 million

ringgit ($4.12m) and set a Malaysian box office record in 2014.

Malaysia reached the zenith of its success in 1972 when it qualified and played in the first round of the Munich Olympics, beating the United States 3-0 but losing to 0-3 to West Germany and 0-6 to Morocco.

The match that defined the "Golden Era", however, was Malay-sia's 2-1 victory over South Korea before thousands of ecstatic fans that earnt them a spot in the 1980 Moscow Olympics - a tournament that, alas, they ended up not attending. Malay-sia joined a boycott over Russia's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.

Malaysians can now only dream of seeing their flag flying on an Olympic pitch as the world read-ies for the Rio Games in six months. Beyond performance on the field, local football is still reeling from a nationwide match-fixing scandal in the mid-1990s.

Malaysian soccer reached its low point last year when angry fans from the Ultras Malaya club threw flares onto the pitch during a World Cup 2018 Asian qualifier against Saudi Arabia, earning Malaysia a $40,000 fine and a FIFA warning.

Malaysian filmmaker seeks to rekindle lost pride in soccer

AFP

DONGYING, CHINA: Macaques in frilly dresses turn backflips and answer maths questions for crowds of screaming children at a Chinese mon-key school, where trainers teach them to waltz and play rock drums.

Shows featuring performing simians, popu-lar in China and throughout Asia, are expecting a boost in the Lunar New Year of the monkey, which begins today.

But they are facing a growing backlash from Chinese people concerned about animal welfare.

“It’s like a human school, but using monkeys,” said Takeshi Soma, the Japanese “headmaster” of the facility, at a zoo in Dongying in the east-ern province of Shandong.

His charges are about a dozen macaques from snow-capped mountains near Tokyo, who receive one-on-one tuition from a team of live-in instructors.

“This kind of training is the first in China,” tracksuited Soma said.

He watched as staff in sequined waistcoats clothed the monkeys in multicoloured gowns, leading them on stage in a mock Viennese ball.

“I think this is the only place that does that,” he said.

Four of the animals are training as a mock rock band, led by a monkey with a red bow tie and pink toy microphone.

But a recent rehearsal ended with one macaque walking on his hands away from a miniature drum kit after a few tender taps, and

another slamming down her plastic guitar before running to stage left.

“Our monkeys don’t listen to us very well. But that’s what is funny about it all. Monkeys being natural and being themselves,” added Soma.

Such performances have a centuries-old history in China, and today monkeys are often seen at country fairs catching knives and rid-ing bicycles.

As China’s economy has boomed, the scale of the shows has increased. More than a dozen zoos in the country now offer monkey performances.

China has no laws protecting non-endan-gered species, but a growing animal protection movement has condemned the displays as cruel.

Their cause was aided when video of a bear biting and clawing a monkey after the two fell off their bicycles in an “Animal Olympics” in the east-ern city of Shanghai, went viral in 2013.

One staff member at the Yangjiaping zoo in Chongqing said that monkey shows had been can-celled this year “because of a complaint about animal cruelty”.

Monkeys at the Dongying school sleep in bare concrete-walled enclosures, and sometimes receive light slaps from their trainers.

Headmaster Soma admitted: “How should I put this? They are tough things. I don’t think monkeys like the school.”

But the backlash has not deterred investors, with nearly 19m yuan ($2.9m) spent on the school, said Xiao Jingxia, president of the local govern-ment backed China-Japan Friendship Association.

It is a partnership with Japanese monkey troupe Nikko Saru Gundan, whose animals

regularly star on TV shows in their native country.“We hope to attract audiences from all over

China,” Xiao said, as monkeys were led around in front of her on leashes.

“We would like to take advantage of the monkey year for publicity... this will be a year of promotion.”

A crowd of several dozen children and par-ents gathered outside the theatre building over an hour before the show started, mixing with the animals who wore nappies with holes cut for their tails.

“Mum, I’ve seen monkeys! I’ve seen Sun Wukong,” said three-year-old Zhao Yizi, refer-ring to a hero of the classic Chinese novel Journey To The West, and cajoling his mother into buy-ing a 30 yuan ($5) ticket.

Sun has cemented the image of mon-keys in China as mischievous but essentially loveable.

The centrepiece of the school’s afternoon show was a mock mathematics class, with ani-mals in tunics and denim shorts sitting behind miniature desks.

They raised their hands and showed their fingers to apparently answer basic arithmetic questions, as the young audience giggled and clapped.

Later the monkeys rode atop large plastic balls and jumped over obstacles. And, of course, waltzed.

“I like the dancing best. They are like peo-ple,” said four-year-old Ai Jiuqiu.

“Happy monkey year!” an announcer boomed, before the animals were undressed and led back to their cages.

China school sees monkey businessSouma Takeshi, a trainer from Japan, working with his monkeys before a performance at a monkey training school in a zoo in Dongying, eastern China's Shandong province.

Lulu expands in Oman and opens 16th hypermarket

PAGE | 22 PAGE | 23

QBA hosts Swedish business

delegation

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MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016 • 29 Rabia II 1437 @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatarthepeninsulaqatar

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Petroleum (QP) has reached an agreement with Chevron Morocco Exploration Ltd, a subsid-iary of Chevron Corporation, to acquire a 30 percent participating interest from Chevron’s 75 percent share in three deep-water offshore leases in the Kingdom of Morocco.

Under the agreement, which was approved by the Moroccan govern-ment, Qatar Petroleum will acquire the 30 percent interest in the deep-water leases, while Chevron will retain a 45 percent interest and remains the operator and Morocco’s Office National Des Hydrocarbures Et Des Mines will continue to have a 25 percent interest.

The three offshore areas are Cap Rhir Deep, Cap Cantin Deep and Cap Walidia Deep.

Saad Sherida Al Kaabi (pic-tured), President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, expressed pleasure at the finalisation of the agreement, which he described as “an important step

towards building a mutually benefi-cial relationship with Chevron with particular emphasis on international upstream activities.”

“It is no coincidence that Qatar Petroleum’s international presence is now extended to Morocco, a country which Qatar enjoys special relations with,” he added.

Ali Moshiri, President of Chevron Africa and Latin America Explo-ration and Production said: “The agreement is a milestone in both companies’ efforts to maximise the value of exploration and production assets through long-term relation-ships. We are pleased to partner with Qatar Petroleum in offshore Morocco and are looking forward to use our joint capabilities in this exciting sub-salt play for the benefit of Morocco”.

The three offshore lease areas are located between 100 km and 200 km west and northwest of the Morocco city of Agadir. They encom-pass approximately 29,200 sq kms with average water depths ranging from 100 metres to 4,500 metres.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company (MPHC), a subsid-iary of Qatar Petroleum and one of the region’s premier diversified pet-rochemical conglomerates, recorded a net profit of QR1.1bn for the full year ended December 2015.

Total income reported for the year, including the tax refund was QR1.1bn, a decrease of QR707m, or 39 percent, versus the same period of 2014. The decline is primarily due to planned facility maintenance in the current year and weaker prod-uct prices following the significant fall in the global oil prices in Q4, 2014 that started to affect product prices.

MPHC’s QR1.1bn net profit reflects a decrease of QR0.7bn, or

39.5 percent, over the same period in 2014, while the fourth quarter earn-ings of QR300.8m were down by 21.5 percent over the third quarter of 2015. The year-on-year reduction was driven by planned major main-tenance shutdowns and due to weak product prices.

The preventive maintenance and warranty shutdowns are an essen-tial requirement for large, industrial plants as they can help minimise unplanned disruption, ensure product quality is maintained and ultimately, contribute to an extension of plant’s production life.

The quarter-on-quarter decrease was due to decrease in selling prices and sales volumes. The groups’ profit was also aided by recognition of a tax refund of QR100.1m for the year. The group continued to bene-fit from the supply of competitively

priced ethane feedstock and fuel gas under long-term supply agreements. This contracting arrangement is an important value driver for the group profitability in a challenging market condition.

The company’s liquidity position remained strong during the year on buoyant cash realisation ratios across all group companies, with cash held by the company after distribution of previous years dividend of QR1.3bn, was at QR926m. The total assets at December 31, 2015 was QR14.3bn, compared to the December 31, 2014 total assets of QR14.6bn.

Due to the unfavourable condi-tions experienced during the year, the group closed the year with 9.6 per-cent less than the budgeted profit, MPHC said.

The Board of Directors aim to maximise the percentage of net profit

paid as a cash dividend while main-taining adequate liquidity for the group’s capital investments, work-ing capital and financing needs, and the principles of financial prudence.

After ensuring sufficient cash is maintained for working capital, debt repayment and capital expend-iture, and keeping in view the latest economic forecasts, the Board of Directors, in their meeting yesterday recommended a total annual dividend distribution for the full year 2015 of QR879.4m.

This is equivalent to a payout of QR0.7 per share and represents 80.9 percent of the group’s profits.

The Board of Directors and sen-ior management look forward to 2016 with renewed confidence in the sound financial and operational position of the group, and continued strong sup-port from our esteemed shareholders.

Satish Kanady

The Peninsula

DOHA: The decline in oil revenue has not led Qatar to significant spend-ing cuts, rather the government was embarking on a strategy of prioritising expenditures to improve investment efficiency.

Although the drop in oil prices has induced a fall in export earn-ings and government revenues and consequently government depos-its, the country’s banking system’s liquidity has been comfortable so far partly reflecting QCB’s active liquidity management operations, Qatar Cen-tral Bank (QCB) Governor H E Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud Al Thani (pictured) has stated.

Sheikh Abdullah said QCB has been actively managing liquidity to ensure monetary and financial stabil-ity. He said the $4.1bn bond issuance in September 2015 was part of that

broader strategy of liquidity man-agement. Despite this issuance, the banking system liquidity was in a primary surplus position as reflected in the sum of net Qatar Money Rate (QMR) deposits and excess reserves with QCB at QR5.4bn at end-Septem-ber 2015.

In an interview published by international research firm The Busi-ness Year, he said the banks’ liquid asset to liabilities continues to be sta-ble at around 50 percent, while the quality of banking assets has contin-ued to improve; the gross NPL ratio has declined to its lowest level since 2011. At the same time, reflecting the implementation of Basel III frame-work since January 2014, banks remained capitalized , significantly above the current regulatory require-ment of 12.5 percent and profitable. This suggests the continued robust-ness of Qatar’s financial sector.

On the Qatar-based banks’ inter-national expansion plans , the central bank Governor said the expansion

plans are indications of the increas-ing strength and confidence of these banks to compete with other banks in the international arena. However,

as a regulator, QCB is ensuring that the expansion should be prudential. Limits have been fixed on the foreign currency gap. The ratio of foreign

currency asset to foreign currency liability of each bank should be at a minimum of 100 percent. This means that short positions are not allowed, but long are allowed.

The ratings of Qatar-based banks continue to remain high. Qatari banks have been playing an impor-tant role in the development of the economy. They have been extending credit to both the hydrocarbon and the non-hydrocarbon sector to meet productive needs. The current high growth in credit to the private sector reflects the support they are providing to the diversification of the economy.

In the year ahead, banks will have to maintain additional capital to meet the countercyclical capital requirements. Moreover, domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs) have already been instructed for main-tenance of additional capital from next year onwards. On the monetary pol-icy front, QCB will continue to actively manage liquidity in the system in order to ensure a stable interest rate

environment and thereby facilitate adequate flow of credit to the pro-ductive sectors of the economy. If low oil prices persist for long, policy space available in terms of both fiscal buffers and QCB’s liquidity management oper-ations could be used flexibly.

On the impact of the newly enacted laws on the performance of the Qatar Stock Exchange, the central bank Governor said the introduction of concerned laws helped Qatari bourse to record high levels in traded volume and index in September 2014. The Strategic Plan also aims to main-tain a conducive and investor-friendly environment. The liquidity provision scheme of 2013, together with the new rules on margin trading introduced by the Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) offer a number of advantages for the market and investors, such as increasing trading volumes and liquidity, and should help to reduce price volatility and promote con-fidence among investors, thereby ensuring a fair and orderly market.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Ooredoo Group’s fully-owned subsidiary Ooredoo Myanmar has made funding arrangements with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group to expand a nationwide modern mobile telecom network in Myanmar. Oore-doo Group and Ooredoo Myanmar teams have successfully secured the funding. ADB and IFC will each provide $150m loan to Ooredoo Myanmar.

Ooredoo Myanmar provides lead-ing telecommunication services to its millions of customers in the coun-try. Its leadership in 3G technology

ensures that people of Myanmar benefit from best data services and crystal clear voice services.

Since Ooredoo’s entrance into the market, more than 80 percent of the population is covered by its 3G net-work with majority of the Ooredoo customers accessing this network via smart devices. Ooredoo Myanmar continues to invest in its infrastruc-ture to benefit from the opportunity offered by low mobile phone and data usage penetration rates among the 51 million population of Myanmar.

The financing will support Oore-doo’s strategy for Myanmar, enabling it to accelerate the reach of its mod-ern telecommunications network for the people of Myanmar, boosting eco-nomic growth and job creation across the country.

The deal also demonstrates

Ooredoo’s long-term commitment to Ooredoo Myanmar, where it has been operating since its licence was granted in 2014 and underlines Oore-doo’s investment in Myanmar.

In addition to its ongoing corpo-rate social responsibility initiatives especially related to economic, educational, social and cultural development activities, Ooredoo Myanmar has also adopted a world-class Environmental and Social Action Plan in line with the IFC’s and ADB’s performance standards and guidelines, as part of the financ-ing deal.

Sheikh Saud Bin Nasser Al Thani, Ooredoo Group CEO commented: “Over the last two years, Oore-doo has made significant progress on its strategy to provide the peo-ple of Myanmar with a world-class

telecommunications network. Our investments in Myanmar continue to support the good revenue and customer growth trends we have recorded in the country. Our wide range of telecom services support the socio-economic development of the country through enhanced com-munication between businesses, organizations and individuals. We are proud that world renowned lenders like Asia Development Bank and International Finance Corpora-tion participated in the funding deal with Ooredoo Myanmar to further expand our network and distribu-tion in the country. The financing deal demonstrates our commitment in Myanmar and strong potential of Ooredoo Myanmar to accelerate the delivery of its network and services to the people of Myanmar.”

QP and Chevron in exploration deal in MoroccoQP to acquire a 30% participating interest from Chevron’s 75% share in three deep-water offshore leases in Morocco

MPHC records QR1.1bn net profit in 2015

QCB active in managing liquidity to ensure stability: Governor

Ooredoo Myanmar secures $300m funding

BUSINESS22 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Dubai: Emaar Malls, the shopping and retail arm mostly owned by Dubai’s Emaar Properties giant, said its annual profit surged 23 percent to $451m in 2015, as rental income increased.

Net profit reached Dh1.66bn ($451m) in 2015, compared with Dh1.35bn the year before, said the company which owns Dubai Mall — one of the world’s largest shop-ping centres.

In the fourth quar-ter, Emaar Malls saw net profit rise 16 percent on year to Dh435m.

The company said its rental income grew by 11 percent to Dh2.99bn in 2015, with occupancy lev-els reaching 96 percent in the same year.

“The retail sector is a key contributor to Dubai’s economy, said Chairman Mohamed Alabbar.

Dubai’s Emaar

Malls profit up

23% in 2015

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar is set to award more than $22bn worth of new contracts in 2016 as it maintains its spending spree in advance of the FIFA 2022 World Cup. Details of these new projects, together with some of the challenges

they represent, will be outlined at the annual MEED Qatar Projects Confer-ence in Doha from March 15 to 16.

The forecast of $22.2bn worth of contracts to be awarded in the state this year is some 24 per cent lower than the $29.3bn worth of deals awarded in 2015, primarily due to lower oil prices but also thanks to a renewed focus on existing project delivery rather than the launch of new schemes. However, this year’s figure is also almost exactly in line with Qatar’s $22.3bn contract award average expe-rienced over the past five years.

“Like all GCC states, Qatar’s is set to spend less this year as govern-ment revenues are impacted by lower oil prices,” says Ed James, Direc-tor of Content & Analysis at regional projects tracker MEED Projects, which created the forecast. “Nonetheless, the projects market in the state is expected to continue apace as the

authorities press ahead with their capital investment plans as the dead-line for the World Cup looms closer. This will ensure a healthy pipeline of new projects will come to the market throughout 2016, providing numerous new opportunities for suppliers, con-tractors and vendors alike.”

Prestigious keynote speakers at the event will be Minister of Economy and Commerce, H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani together with Eng Nasser bin Ali Al Mawlawi, President of Ashghal, the largest single client in Qatar. With more than $30bn worth of projects either planned or under construction, Ashghal is a key stake-holder in Qatar’s future development, and will outline its vision for the state at the event. It will also reveal details of its major challenges as well as how companies can work more closely with it to achieve its objectives.

Other speakers includes Saud

Abdullah Al Attiyah, Director of Economic Policies and Research Department at the Ministry of Econ-omy and Commerce in Qatar, Ahmed Nassar Al Kowsi, logistics Director and Kaldoon Truman, Senior Director of Contracts and Procurement both from Qatar Rail, Mohammed Al Malki, Chief Planning Business Development Officer at Manateq, Atter Exxat Han-noura, Director of PPP Central Unit at the Ministry of Finance in Egypt and senior representatives of the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) will also address the conference.

Topics to be covered will include: an exclusive update on the implemen-tation of PPP regulations in the $200 bn Qatari projects market, Evaluat-ing the existing funding options to finance mega project programmes in Qatar, discussing the critical chal-lenges facing project owners and contractors from the initial stage of

recruiting through to project deliv-ery - the lessons learned, managing risk and mitigating disputes in the Qatari project market through well-constructed contracts, discussing the upcoming plans for growth and development of the hospitality indus-try in Qatar, and a recent update of the existing and future mega projects happening in Qatar.

“Qatar’s going to lead the region and the world once more with further progress in the execution of its inspir-ing vision for the years to 2030,” says Richard Thompson, Editorial Director of MEED Magazine. “Lower oil prices can’t be ignored, but it’s clear that Qatar has the financial and human resources overcome this challenge. The MEED Qatar Projects Conference will be the perfect place to learn how Qatari, regional and global businesses can play their part in delivering the vision.”

Qatar spending spree to continue in 2016Qatar to award more than $22bn worth of new contracts in 2016 and details will be outlined at the annual MEED Qatar Projects Conference

QBA hosts Swedish business delegationThe Peninsula

DOHA: The Qatari Businessmen Association (QBA) organised a meet-ing with a delegation of Swedish businessmen that included Max Bjuhr, Ambassador of Trade and Promotion Mena Region, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cherif Sayed, Business Swe-den Vice-President, Head of Middle East & Africa and Lennart Killander, Director of Trade Promotion, Minis-try of Foreign Affairs, in the presence of Ewa Polano, Ambassador of Swe-den to Doha

The meeting was attended by rep-resentatives from the biggest Swedish companies.

From the QBA side, the meeting

was attended by the chairman Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani, Hussein Al Fardan, QBA First Deputy Chair-man, Sheikh Hamad bin Faisal bin Thani Al Thani, QBA Board Member and QBA members Mohamed Kha-led Al Rabban, Maqbool Khalfan, and Wassim Al Daiaa.

Max Bjuhr spoke about the oppor-tunities and projects that Swedish companies are currently implement-ing in Qatar and which cover different sectors. Hussein Al Fardan praised the economic relations between the two countries especially in the field of cars and vehicles.

Sheikh Hamad bin Faisal Al Thani stressed on the importance of exchanging visits and trade dele-gations between the businessmen of both countries. QBA Chairman Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani with the Swedish business delegation.

Reuters

PARIS: Seven countries including France, Britain and Germany have urged the European Union to step up action to relieve an ailing steel indus-try suffering from tumbling prices and cheap imports from China and Russia.

Ministers from the three coun-tries, along with Italy, Poland, Belgium and Luxembourg, sent a joint letter to the European Commission

and the chair of the EU Council of Ministers. “The European steel indus-try — already weakened by the 2008 economic crisis — is tackling chronic use of unfair trade practices in a context of strong international com-petition intensified by overcapacity at global level,” they wrote in the letter, initiated by French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron. “The European Union cannot remain passive when rising job losses and steelwork clo-sures show that there is a significant and impending risk of collapse in the European steel sector.”

The EU is the second largest pro-ducer of steel in the world after China. It makes over 177 million tonnes a year, accounting for 11 percent of global output, according to EU data.

Europe has lost 85,000 steel jobs since 2008, over 20 percent of the workforce, according to the indus-try body Eurofer, as prices crashed to decade lows due to overcapac-ity, shrinking demand and a flood of cheap imports, mostly from China.

The EU also has some of the world’s highest energy costs and green taxes. The seven ministers

asked the Commission to make full use of the full range of EU policy instruments to tackle unfair trade.

The EU intends to impose duties on imports of cold-rolled flat steel from China and Russia following its investigation into alleged dumping by the two countries, sources said.

The ministers called for a sep-arate investigation into imports of hot-rolled flat products from China.

“We should not wait until the damage from unfair practices becomes irreversible for our indus-try,” they wrote.

Seven countries call for EU action to help steel industry

China to continue

prudent monetary

policy: PBoC

Beijing: The People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the central bank, said it will continue its prudent mon-etary policy while striking a balance between tight and loose.

The PBoC will maintain its “policy conti-nuity and stability,” make policies more forward-looking, carry out policy fine-tuning in a timely and appropriate man-ner, adapt its aggregate demand management to supply-side structural reform, the bank said in its monetary policy report for the fourth quarter.

The PBoC will use a string of monetary policy tools, including liquidity and price management, to create a financial envi-ronment conducive to Chinese economy’s restructuring and upgrad-ing. China will optimise financing and credit structures to help foster new growth momentum.

SPE Qatar holds talk on well technology

Award for Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance CoThe Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance Co (SAQ) was recognised as the top performing insurance com-pany in the ‘Overall Middle East and Non-Life’ (Middle East) categories at the 12th annual Middle East Insurance Forum (MEIF) held in Bahrain, said a statement yesterday.

Some five MEIF Institutional Excellence Awards were granted to the best performing insurance compa-nies within the GCC, Levant and wider Middle East, as well as those in the Life and Non-Life insurance segments.

The awards were delivered by Abdul Rahman Mohammed Al Baker, Executive Director of Financial Insti-tutions Supervision at the Central Bank of Bahrain, the strategic part-ner of MEIF. The MEIF Institutional Excellence Awards have been the flag-ship awards for the region’s insurance industry for the past 12 years.

Ehsan Abbas, Chairman of Middle East Global Advisors, the conveners or MEIF, said: “This afternoon’s award winners should be commended on the quality and dedication of the manage-ment team to serve the Middle East insurance industry whilst maintain-ing sound fundamentals.” Officials at the award ceremony.

The Peninsula

DOHA: SPE Qatar Section held their first meeting of 2016 with a techni-cal presentation by distinguished lecturer Brian Schwanitz of Welltec.

Speaking at the technical pres-entation Brian Schwanitz brought to light the latest developments for e-line stroking hydraulic tools for well interventions.

Since its launch in 2001, the technology has seen a wide array

of applications with increasing capabilities and efficiency to well interventions to repair and optimise oil and gas production.

Millions of dollars can be saved by using these tools instead of hav-ing a coiled tubing unit or drilling rig to repair these wells.

Qatar SPE Section Programme Chair Michael Gunningham informed that the section has a planned year of activities for 2016, aiming to address many more sig-nificant issues & technological developments in the field.

DOHA: Gulf Air, the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national carrier, today launched a “Travel Together” Promotion giving travellers from across the airline’s global network the chance to book and purchase two Falcon Gold (premium) class tickets for the price of one.

The promotion is availa-ble for booking from February 8 to 14 and for travel until May 31, 2016 – to and from select Gulf Air destinations.

Gulf Air unveils ‘Travel Together’ promotion

Michael Gunningham (left), SPE Programme Chair, with the presenter Brian Schwanitz, Welltec.

An aerial view of the solar mirrors at the Noor 1 Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant, some 20km outside the central Moroccan town of Ouarzazate. Noor 1 is one of the largest solar plants in the world, which is the first stage of a larger project designed to boost renewable energy production in Morocco.

Solar plant in Morocco

BUSINESS 23 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

By Mohammad Shoeb

The Peninsula

DOHA: Concerns over the loss of privacy and loss of autonomy are the twin major reasons that prevent

family-owned businesses from listing their companies on Qatar Exchange (QE). The disclosure of the value of assets and losing control over their companies seem to be real problems for them, said a top official at Qatari bourse.

Rashid bin Ali Al Mansoori (pic-tured), CEO of QE said that listing of big family-owned businesses and private companies can help reflect the robust size and vibrancy of the national economy. But such compa-nies are still out of the ambit of QE, and are very reluctant to get listed.

“Over the last six years we have been waiting for family-owned busi-nesses and other private companies to get listed at the QE, but they are shy-ing away. They think that after listing they may lose control over their busi-nesses, but they never thought about continuing their businesses from

one generation to another,” Al Man-soori told the audience at a discussion forum organised by Doha Bank. The event was well attended by a number of business leaders and representa-tives from the private sector.

He said that QE tried to find out the reasons for not listing, and hosted a conference to discuss the issues with family-owned businesses, which was attended by over 300 people.

“After the meeting we reached to a conclusion that such business owners are apprehensive about disclosure and losing control over their companies. They are relying only on government to contribute to the stock market”, he said. “Then we launched a programme with an aim at convincing and guiding them to the right direction. As a result this year we have some companies in the pipeline for listing.”

Al Mansoori was speaking at

session on “Growing Opportunities in Qatar” held at Doha Bank head-quarters. The other panelists included top officials from the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), Doha Bank and Amwal, a local asset management company.

Al Mansoori hoped that QFC, which is set to revise its laws to enable QFC-licensed firms aiming to provide more access to the Qatar economy, will encourage more companies to get listed. However, he noted that there is a need to contribute to fur-ther strengthening the confidence of retail investors on the stock exchange as it provides an alternative invest-ment destination for those who can’t investment in real estate or other ave-nues of investment.

“We are going to introduce this year some new products such as ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) pro-viding more options for investors. In

this regard we are working closely with QFC and other authorities con-cerned,” he said.

He also highlighted that QE within a short period has made significant achievements. Over the last few years it is sitting next to exchanges that have been there for around hundred years.

“Over the last few years we made it to the “Emerging market” status as we have been classified and upgraded to this category by MSCI and S&P. And the FTSE Group has also announced to upgrade QE to the same status this year by September, which means more investments and liquidity in the market,” said the QE CEO.

Al Mansoori added that QE already witnessed the impact of the upgraded classification, and it will continue supporting and empower-ing the Qatar economy as part of its ultimate mission.

Call for family-owned businesses to get listedDisclosure of the value of assets and losing control over their companies seem to be real problems for family-owned businesses

Lulu expands in Oman and opens 16th hypermarketThe Peninsula

DOHA: Middle East retail major Lulu Group has further expanded its presence in the Sultanate of Oman by opening its latest hypermarket in Suwaiq, a coastal town in the north east of the country.

The 16th Lulu hypermarket in Oman was officially inaugurated by Shaikh Muhna bin Saif bin Salim Al Lamki, Governor of North Al Batinah, in the presence of several high-rank-ing officials from various government departments and representatives from local business communities.

The new 100,000 sqft hypermar-ket will serve the residents of Suwaiq and its surrounding areas with a wide range of products from all over the world. The hypermarket has sep-arate sections for fresh fruits and vegetables, meat and poultry, dairy products, ready-to-eat products and a state-of-the-art live bakery and Hot Foods kitchen and a huge area ded-icated to department store which includes garment, electronics, IT products, home appliances, etc. The product mix in Lulu Suwaiq encom-passes a wide selection of premium UK and US goods, including special products air-flown for freshness. The

Shaikh Muhna bin Saif bin Salim Al Lamki, Governor of North Al Batinah, opens the 16th Lulu hypermarket in Suwaiq, Oman, in the presence of Yusuffali MA, Chairman - Lulu Group, CEO Saifee Rupawala, Executive Director Ashraf Ali MA, Oman Regional Director, Ananth AV and other top officials.

new hypermarket will have lots of inaugural offers and deals in almost all categories.

Speaking after the inauguration, Yusuffali MA, Chairman of Lulu, said: “Oman has always been a preferred destination for us because of its stable

political environment and promising market. We thank His Majesty Sul-tan Qaboos bin Said and the people of this country for encouraging us in all our expansion strategies and efforts in Oman. The Group will open seven more hypermarkets in various regions

of the country in the next two years.”On providing training and

employment opportunity to the edu-cated Omani youth, Yusuffali said, “it is also our endeavour to nurture the local talent and a proof of this is our strong Omani work force of 2,000

strong that form the nucleus of our operations here in Oman. Our aim in the wake of the aggressive expan-sion plans is to provide employment to more Omani nationals by the end of 2017.”. Currently Lulu provides best quality training to absorb them in various managerial and special-ised sections to Omanis,” he added.

Regardless of the challenges arising from the volatile oil prices, Yussufali expressed optimism on the economic outlook of the country. “We’re very optimistic based on the circumstances in general. The impact of fluctuating oil prices is not going to distract us from the long-term goals of our business in Oman.

“Despite the signs of fiscal cau-tion, there is no need for residents to press the panic button. The govern-ment has initiated comprehensive measures and substantial strategies to tide over the crisis and create a pos-itive impact on the lives of citizens. This is definitely a clear sign that the economy is on track to overcome the challenges and achieve its objectives successfully,” he added.

Other important attendees at the inauguration: Lulu Group CEO Saifee Rupawala, Executive Direc-tor – Ashraf Ali MA, Oman Regional Director, Ananth AV and other top officials.

Meeting with Al Nuaimi productive: Venezuela oil ministerReuters

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali bin Ibrahim Al Nuaimi discussed cooperation between Opec members and other oil producers to stabilise the global oil market with his Venezue-lan counterpart yesterday, state news agency SPA reported.

Venezuela’s Oil Minister Eulogio

Del Pino, who is on a tour of oil pro-ducers to lobby for action to prop up prices, said his meeting with Nuaimi was “productive”, his minis-try reported.

Venezuela has been calling for an emergency meeting of producers to discuss steps to prop up prices, which are close to their lowest since 2003.

The prospect of supply restraint by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and rivals helped

oil prices rise above $34 a barrel on Friday from a 12-year low close to $27 last month, despite widespread scep-ticism that a deal will happen.

“It was a successful meeting and (conducted) in a positive atmosphere,” SPA cited Nuaimi as saying.

Both ministers discussed Del Pino’s visits to other oil producers and the outcome of his “meetings that aim towards the cooperation of those countries to stabilise the

international oil market”, Nuaimi said. “During the meeting, there were dis-cussions about the cooperation of the producing countries within Opec and outside (Opec)... and the importance of the continuation of such consulta-tions,” SPA added.

However, the comments by Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, show no indication of a shift in the country’s policy of refusing to cut supplies to prop up crude prices,

some Opec delegates said. “They seem like just general talk about cooper-ation, but nothing about cutting production,” said one Opec source.

Opec oil production jumped to its highest in recent history in January as Iran increased sales and its rivals Saudi Arabia and Iraq also boosted supply, a Reuters survey showed. The Iranian news agency Shana quoted Del Pino as saying six producing coun-tries supported a producer meeting.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Award-winning agency UM MENA, yesterday announced the launch of UM Sports in Doha; a specialised dedicated sports unit dedicated to connecting brands to Qatar’s sporting audiences.

UM Sports, which is the first unit of its kind, leverages UM’s extensive sports experience to pro-vide unique, tailored opportunities to clients. UM Sports offers clients consultancy for sports sponsor-ships and other activations by combining the extensive exper-tise of its sport media specialists with proprietary data and measur-ing tools to maximise value. Since UM’s establishment in Qatar in 1994, the agency has been trusted by some of the strongest brands in the country including Ooredoo, Qatar Financial Centre and Aspire.

“Sport brings us together like few other activities can, making it a very powerful vehicle for brands to reach and connect with their audiences,” said Simon Bowthorpe, Managing Director, UM Qatar. “UM Sports has the industry expertise, local knowledge and global net-work. This enables us to support organisations across markets with crafting an effective strategy for increasing brand value and deliv-ering a high return on investment.”

“Qatar provides great oppor-tunities to organisations looking to capitalise on its status as a dynamic sports hub with global visibility,” said Jihad El Rassi, UM Qatar. “UM Sports is part of UM’s drive to proactively connect brands to high-value sports opportunities that provide measurable results.”

UM Sports

launched

in Qatar

BUSINESS24 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

AFP

FRANKFURT: The head of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, one of the biggest capital pools in the world, yesterday lashed Volkswagen’s own-ership structure as giving too much power to family shareholders and disadvantaging minority sharehold-ers.

As VW battles a global emis-sions-cheating scandal, the fund’s chief executive, Yngve Slyngstad, slammed the carmaker’s share-holder structure.

“This cannot be a role model for Germany,” Slyngstad said. Frank-furter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

The Porsche and Piech families own 50.73 percent of VW’s voting shares via the holding company Por-sche Automobil Holding SE, but they own only 31.5 percent of the com-pany equity.

“I don’t think that anyone genu-inely believes that the family wants to change anything about the struc-ture,” Slyngstad told the newspaper.

“We as co-owners don’t get the impression that the family wants to listen to us.” Norway’s ¤734bn ($819bn) fund holds a stake of 1.2 percent in Volkswagen.

It previously criticised the Ger-man group’s shareholder structure in 2009 following the VW-Porsche takeover battle.

The embattled auto giant is cur-rently embroiled in its deepest-ever crisis after it was forced to admit that it had fitted 11 million diesel cars worldwide with software which intentionally skews the results of emissions tests.

On Friday, the company took the unusual step of delaying the publica-tion of its annual results and pushed back its annual shareholder meeting as it grapples with assessing the full financial fallout from the scandal.

Separately, the star lawyer VW has hired to handle compensa-tion claims in the United States told another Sunday newspaper that it might take some time yet before a deal is hammered out for owners of the affected vehicles in the US.

“My hands are tied as long as VW and the authorities don’t over-come their differences. The original timeframe could be delayed,” law-yer Kenneth Feinberg told Die Welt am Sonntag.

Feinberg is renowned as the go-to lawyer for high-profile legal cases. He managed the compen-sation claims fund for General Motors related to the deadly igni-tion switches used in some of its cars.

The Porsche and Piech families own 50.73 percent of VW’s voting shares via the holding company Porsche Automobil Holding SE, but they own only 31.5 percent of the company equity

Norway’s SWF

hits out at VW

leadership

AFP

TEHRAN: French carmaker Peu-geot is to provide Iran Khodro with ¤427m in debt waivers, bonuses and discounts under their first post-sanctions deal, the Iranian manufacturer said yesterday.

Iran Khodro signed a deal with Peugeot during President Has-san Rouhani’s trip to France last month to form a joint venture that is expected to invest up to ¤400m ($436m) over five years.

Peugeot is the first Western car-maker to announce a return to Iran since many economic sanctions against it were lifted last month

upon implementation of a landmark nuclear deal with world powers.

“To compensate for suddenly leaving Iran under sanctions”, Iran Khodro CEO Hashem Yekkeh Zare said yesterday, Peugeot has agreed to waive ¤80m of outstanding debts and provide free car parts worth ¤25m, and a free production line for the Peugeot 207 model worth ¤11m.

Peugeot will also offer ¤311.6m in discounts, he said, including ¤140m in royalty fees for cars made under Peugeot’s name.

Instead of ¤100, “Peugeot will receive 30 euros in royalty for 2m cars,” Yekkeh Zare said.

As part of last month’s deal, Peugeot and its French partner Cit-roen will work with Iran Khodro to

eventually produce 200,000 vehi-cles a year using parts manufactured in Iran.

The aim is to make the Peugeot 208, the 2008 sport utility vehicle and 301 compact models, with the first vehicles expected to roll off the production line in 2017.

The joint venture will export 30 percent of its production, and the remainder will be sold in the domes-tic market.

Peugeot spokesman Olivier Salmon said the deal with Iran Kho-dro was “a balanced agreement”.

“The joint venture that will be established will help to pro-vide vehicles to Iranian customers for sustainable mobility,” Peugeot added.

Yekkeh Zare added that talks were under way with Germany’s Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen as well as Italian carmaker Fiat. Iranian conservatives have been critical of Rouhani’s government for restoring trade with Peugeot and other foreign firms whose departure under sanc-tions dealt a blow to the economy, saying the international partners proved themselves unreliable.

But when Peugeot pulled out of Iran in 2012 it was a major loss for the French company as the Islamic republic was its second-largest mar-ket, after France.

With the lifting of the sanctions, Iran has signed a raft of commer-cial deals, including one to buy 118 Airbus aircraft worth about $25bn.

Iranian-made cars seen in a parking lot at Iran Khodro, west of Tehran.

Iran carmaker reveals €427m in Peugeot perks

AFP

BEIJING: China’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen to their lowest level in more than three years, the central bank said yesterday, as Bei-jing sells dollars to stop the yuan from depreciating further.

The world’s largest currency hoard shrank by $99.5bn in Janu-ary to some $3.2 trillion, the People’s Bank of China said on its website, the lowest since May 2012.

Worries about China’s economy have pushed the yuan to a five-year low. The country saw its first-ever annual decline in foreign exchange reserves last year as Beijing tried to prevent a more drastic devaluation.

The PBoC is selling dollars to buy yuan amid a capital flight spurred by the slowing growth in the world’s second largest economy.

But some analysts predict a more drastic weakening of the yuan this year and question China’s ability

to continue rapidly shedding the reserves. “While the remaining reserves represent a substantial war chest, the rapid pace of depletion in recent months is simply unsustain-able,” IHS Global Insight economist Rajiv Biswas said.

Outflows increased “as expec-tations mount that the PBoC will eventually be forced to capitulate once its reserves are sufficiently depleted”, he added.

George Magnus, economic com-mentator and associate at Oxford University’s China Centre, wrote on Twitter: “China’s fx reserves fell another $100bn clearly this can’t go on for long.”

China has also tightened some capital controls to try to curb out-flows. “The smaller decline in the reserves suggests that some capital outflow restrictions imposed in Jan-uary worked,” Shen Jianguang, chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities, wrote in a note.

The drop in February will be much smaller, he added.

Reuters

NEW YORK: Investors praised the speed with which new Argentine President Mauricio Macri made a cash offer to holders of defaulted bonds aimed at ending a long and bitter dispute that has strangled government finances.

A financial markets pariah since defaulting on a record $100bn in 2002, Argentina proposed on Fri-day a $6.5bn payment to settle the legal battle and said two of the lead-ing six “holdouts” in the case had

already accepted the discounted terms. “We’re very encouraged by the pace with which Argentina is finally resolving the outstanding disputes with all of its holdouts,” said Shahriar Shahida, co-chief investment officer at New York-based Constellation Capital Management, which holds Argen-tine securities.

“We’re hopeful this government will have a much more conciliatory relationship with all of its creditors,” Shahida said.

As Macri sought to woo multina-tional chief executives gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos

last month, the center-right leader said he wanted a “fair agreement” with the bondholders early this year.

Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said negotiations were continuing with creditors still push-ing for an improved deal. They include billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Management and Aurelius Capital Management.

“There might be a chance that in the next few days they come on board,” Prat-Gay told Radio Mitre. “They’re looking at the offer. They’ve been getting closer to our position.” Macri’s pursuit of a swift settlement contrasts with the

defiant position of his leftist pred-ecessor, Cristina Fernandez, who refused to offer better terms than the steep writedown accepted by most creditors in earlier bond restructurings. She labeled the hold-out investors “vultures”.

Macri needs a quick settlement to restore foreign investors’ battered confidence and return Argentina to global debt markets. Foreign credit is sorely needed to bolster Argen-tina’s thin central bank reserves and to finance a gaping fiscal def-icit. Argentina’s offer represents a roughly 25 percent discount on what they claim, and debt strategists

expect the remaining holdouts to demand better terms. Macri will also need approval from Congress, where he lacks a majority. But for now, many investors are optimistic.

“A deal will totally change the outlook. It will be extraordinary for this country,” Cristiano Rattazzi, president of Fiat Argentina said.

Alejo Costa, chief strategist at Buenos Aires-based broker-age Puente, said he expected bond prices to stage a modest rally of up to one cent on the dollar on today following news of the offer. More sustained gains would come with a final deal, he said.

Reuters

DUBAI: Air Arabia, the United Arab Emirates’ only publicly-listed airline, reported its third consecutive quar-terly profit drop yesterday, as fuel hedges taken out at higher oil prices continued to hurt results despite a jump in passenger numbers.

It made a net profit of Dh59m ($16.1m) in the three months to December 31, down 13 percent from the Dh68m made a year ear-lier, said the budget airline, which launched 23 new routes and its fourth hub in Jordan during 2015.

Analysts at SICO Bahrain had estimated the airline would make a fourth-quarter net profit of Dh79.3m — a figure attribut-able to shareholders. Air Arabia passenger figures jumped 17 per-cent year-on-year in the quarter to 2m and revenue rose to Dh957m, from Dh924m in the fourth quar-ter of 2014.

The drop in profit was due to pressure on yields and hedges made at much higher fuel prices. Brent Crude fell about 23 percent in the fourth quarter alone and is down 70 percent from its June 2014 peak.

“The impact of low oil prices continues to have its effect on the wider global economy, while pressure on yields and geo-politi-cal uncertainty continued to weigh on the aviation industry,” Air Ara-bia’s Chairman Abdullah Al Thani said in a statement.

Chief executive Adel Ali said in September the impact on earn-ings from fuel hedging was likely to continue for the next two quarters but he was comfortable with hedg-ing policies for 2016. The carrier’s board of directors proposed a 2015 dividend of 0.09 dirhams per share, in line with the 2014 dividend.

Air Arabia’s annual profit was Dh531m, down from Dh566m in 2014.

China’s forex reserves fall

by $99.5bn in January

Air Arabia records

third straight

profit drop

Investors cheer Argentina’s swift offer to holdouts

A Mercedes-Benz C111 dated from 1970 is one of the main attractions of the special exhibit of youngtimer cars from the 1970’s at the ‘Bremen Classic Motorshow’ fair in one of the exhibition halls in Bremen, Germany. A total of 650 exhibitors from eleven nations present historical, classic and vintage cars, motorbikes, spare parts and accessories in overall eight halls, until yesterday.

Bremen Classic Motorshow fair

A biker riding a Harley Davidson leaves the popular monthly Classic Motorcycle Meeting in Germiston, Johannesburg , South Africa, yesterday. The monthly meeting of motorcycle riders and collectors happens on the first Sunday of the month and attracts thousands of bikers who come to meet old friends, look at classic motorcycles, swap parts and have a breakfast.

Classic Motorcycle Meeting

BUSINESS 25 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Reuters

LONDON: As oil and gas compa-nies cut ever-deeper into the bone to weather their worst downturn in decades, boards have adopted con-trasting strategies to lead them out of the crisis.

Crude prices have tumbled around

70 percent over the past 18 months to around $35 a barrel, leading to five of the world’s top oil companies report-ing sharp declines in profits in recent days.

Executives at energy firms face a tough balancing act: they must cut spending to stay financially afloat while preserving the production infrastructure and capacity that will allow them to compete and grow when the market recovers.

Companies have opted for dif-fering approaches to secure future growth, often choosing to narrow focus to their areas of expertise and the geographic location of their main assets.

American firms Chevron Cono-coPhillips and Hess Corp are withdrawing from more costly deep-water projects to focus on shale oil fields on their home turf, for example.

Britain’s BP is betting on offshore gas in Egypt, while Royal Dutch Shell has opted for an alternative route as it seeks to safeguard its future: the $50bn takeover of BG Group.

In the five years before the down-turn began in mid-2014, when crude

prices held above $100 a barrel, big energy firms had raced to expand production capacity, including buying stakes in vast, costly fields sometimes located thousands of metres under the sea, and miles from land.

Over the past year however, com-panies have slashed their overall capital expenditure, scrapping plans for mega projects that cost billions to develop and take up to a decade to bring online.

“Companies want to strike a bal-ance between long and short-cycle investments while maintaining a robust balance sheet to fund their way through the down cycle,” said BMO Capital analyst Brendan Warn. Focusing on a specific set of exper-tise and geographies allowed them to offer investors a “unique value prop-osition”, he added.

Chevron, the second-largest US oil firm after ExxonMobil by mar-ket value, last week outlined plans to target spending on “short-cycle” investments - lower-cost projects that can take months, rather then several years, to come online.

In particular, it is focusing on

its big presence in shale oil fields in the US Permian basin at the expense of high-cost, complex deepwater projects after cutting its 2016 capital expenditure, or capex, by 24 percent.

“In terms of longer-cycle projects, we aren’t initiating. We aren’t initi-ating any ... You are going to see us preferentially favour short-cycle investments, and if they don’t meet our hurdles, we won’t invest,” Chevron Chief Executive Officer John Watson said in an analyst call. Even though developing shale wells can be more costly than some deepwater projects on a per-barrel basis, a much shorter development cycle and lower execu-tion risks mean that companies can reap benefits quicker.

The short-term investment strat-egy is driven in part by the fact that, unlike for example BP, it already has a pipeline of longer-term projects - it is currently developing some of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects such as the Gorgon and Wheatstone plants in Australia.

Smaller firms ConocoPhillips and Hess have also shifted away from deepwater projects to onshore shale

production including in North Dako-ta’s Bakken Shale.

BP was one of very few compa-nies that approved a major project last year, with its $12bn investment deci-sion in the West Nile Delta gas project in Egypt. The strategy is partly based its plans to see a large part of its future production growth come from gas off the coast of the North African country.

But the company, which reported its biggest-ever loss last week, also does not have the line-up of long-term projects boasted by the likes of Chev-ron; the development is also driven by the fact it sold more than $50bn of assets after the deadly 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, leading to a sig-nificant decline in output, according to analysts.

“BP aren’t digging themselves through a hole. They are investing a little bit through the cycle,” said Warn.

Shell, by contrast, opted at an early stage of the downturn to acquire Britain’s BG Group in the sector’s larg-est deal in a decade. It will make it a leader in LNG and offshore oil pro-duction in Brazil and increase its energy reserves by about a fifth. The

Anglo-Dutch group, which posted its lowest annual income for 13 years last week, expects to complete the deal this month.

US giant Exxon may need to take a leaf out of Shell’s book and seek a major M&A deal after it surprised many in the market last week by slashing its 2016 spending by a quarter to $23bn, said Anish Kapadia, ana-lyst at Tudor, Pickering, Holt and Co.

The capex cut signals the com-pany - which reported its smallest quarterly profit in more than a dec-ade - is not planning to invest in many new projects, he said.

“That is a signal that Exxon doesn’t have an attractive enough project queue to invest in and is not willing to invest in upstream, so if it wants to grow it will have to make an acquisi-tion,” added Kapadia.

“In this environment with the potential for higher oil price, Chev-ron are doing the right thing. They can survive over the next few years and have the option to grow. Exxon is at the bottom of the pile. It looks the most expensive but it is hard to jus-tify given the lack of growth outlook.”

Oil giants plot different paths to come out of crisis

Bloomberg

WASHINGTON: American call-centre jobs may be one casualty of a pending Pacific trade deal that would allow US federal contract work to be shifted to Malaysia, Vietnam and Bru-nei.

Opponents of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership are seiz-ing on the provision as an example of how the pact may help US compa-nies with overseas operations to cut costs when vying for their own gov-ernment’s work, and hurt US workers in the process.

“If you can pay workers $2 an hour, it’s a really easy way to achieve cost savings at the expense of American jobs,” said Dan Mauer, a legislative representative for the Com-munications Workers of America, a labor union with about 700,000 US members.

The trade measure exposes sensi-tivities about jobs and the economy in a presidential election year. Outsider candidates—especially Republican Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side—are appealing to populist anti-establishment voters,

saying they’ll stand up for workers who risk losing their jobs because of trade agreements. Democratic con-tender Hillary Clinton also opposes the TPP.

The agreement, signed Thursday in New Zealand, allows companies in Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei to receive the same treatment as Amer-ican businesses when competing for many US agency contracts. It may actually be more likely to help US companies that have operations in those countries.

“For global American compa-nies with operations in Malaysia and Vietnam, the benefit would be that they could have the additional flex-ibility of supplying a US government contract from those locations,” said Marc Mealy, vice president for policy at the US-Asean Business Council, an advocacy group for US corporations operating in Southeast Asia.

The US in 2015 awarded contracts totaling as much as $625m for call-centre work to companies including subsidiaries of General Dynamics Corp and CenturyLink Inc.

The trade pact would also give US companies better access to gov-ernment contracts in the three Asian countries. The possible beneficiaries

Employees wear headsets while working at desks at the 24/7 Customer Philippines Inc call centre in Cebu, Philippines, in September. American call centre jobs may be one casualty of a pending Pacific trade deal that would allow US federal contract work to be shifted to Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.

include General Electric, Motorola Solutions, Microsoft, Hewlett-Pack-ard and Cisco Systems, according to an Obama administration official involved in negotiating the accord.

Still, the US government pro-curement market, which typically awards more than $400bn in con-tracts each year, dwarfs the roughly $37bn in total contract spending by the national governments of Malay-sia, Vietnam and Brunei combined, according to data from Public Citi-zen, a watchdog group that opposes the trade deal. “Governments should retain the right to use fiscal policy to create jobs domestically when that is the policy priority,” Celeste Drake, an AFL-CIO trade and globalization

policy specialist, said in an e-mail. The Pacific accord “limits that choice and expands the number of countries whose firms will get equal treat-ment with US bidders, regardless of whether the US has a verified reces-sion or depression.”

The other countries that are part of the Pacific deal, including Japan, Mexico and Canada, are among more than 50 nations that are already eli-gible, through other agreements, for equal standing with American sup-pliers when competing for some US government work.

The accord wouldn’t alter some directive designed to favour US companies, including certain “Buy America” requirements attached to

federal money for state and local transit, highway and water projects, sensitive Defense Department pur-chases, and programs designed to boost spending with veterans or small businesses.

Also still in place would be areas where the Southeast Asian coun-tries’ cheaper labor markets might pose a significant threat to US work-ers, such as the production of textiles or footwear for the military. State and municipal government contracting provisions favoring hometown com-panies would remain, at least initially.

Adelicia Cliffe, counsel for Crowell & Moring in Washington, said many of her firm’s clients are watching the trade accord closely.

Reuters

PARIS: Airbus is renegotiat-ing delivery schedules for its revamped A320neo jet and has told some airlines it will be delayed by about two months, industry sources said.

The European plane maker missed a 2015 target for delivering the first aircraft, an upgraded fuel-saving version of its best-selling medium-haul jet, by a few weeks due to what it described as issues with documentation for new Pratt & Whitney engines.

Industry sources have pointed to delays in deliveries of the newly-developed Geared Turbofan engine from its US manufacturer, a sub-sidiary of United Technologies. There was no immediate word on the number of aircraft affected or the full range of expected delays.

Airbus and Pratt & Whitney confirmed they were in talks over deliveries, without elaborating.

“We are in talks with our cus-tomers on deliveries and once these talks will have concluded, then we’ll finalise the aircraft and deliver to our customers as agreed,” an Airbus spokeswoman said.

“We are in talks with our operator customers on deliv-ery schedules and once these are concluded we will finalise the schedules as agreed,” said a spokeswoman for Pratt & Whitney.

Although the delays are mini-mal compared with some all-new programmes, the A320 and Boe-ing’s competing 737 drive a large chunk of aerospace industry prof-its and are closely watched.

Airbus has said deliveries of the A320neo will be tilted towards the second half of the year.

The A320neo is designed to save 15 percent in fuel con-sumption. So far, Airbus has delivered one aircraft to Ger-many’s Lufthansa. The launch customer was originally supposed to be Qatar Airways but it rejected early aircraft due to longer than expected startup times, requiring extra fuel.

Speculation about last-minute fine-tuning resurfaced after the first aircraft was delivered after an unusually extensive series of 11 pre-delivery test flights, accord-ing to data from website Hamburg Finkenwerder News.

In December, India’s IndiGo said it would not receive its first A320neo on time for “industrial reasons” and warned of further delays.

United Technologies said last month the engines needed “a soft-ware fix and a minor hardware fix” to deal with cooling problems. Boeing said that it was working to deliver the 737 MAX ahead of schedule. CFM said that it was on course to support targets set by both plane makers as it set new production goals.

Oil and gas companies have slashed their overall capital expenditure, scrapping plans for mega projects that cost billions to develop and take up to a decade to bring online

US call centre jobs may be exported under Pacific deal

Airbus in talks to

reschedule delivery

of A320neo jet

South Africa aims to lift

coal exports to India

Reuters

CAPE TOWN: South Africa is hoping to boost coal exports to India after shipping a record 75.4m tonnes of coal last year, industry officials said, as a drop in exports from rival Indo-nesia opens up the chance to grab market share.

Data from analytic consultancy IHS Energy shows that around 36m tonnes of South African coal was shipped through Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) to big coal con-sumer India last year, up from 30 million tonnes in 2014.

“As far as South African coal for India, it is definitely on a growth path. How long and how much is yet to be seen,” Arun Maheshwari, senior vice president commercial for Indian firm JSW Steel, told a coal conference in Cape Town.

Global oversupply and a drop in coal prices to 7-year lows have hit

miners and coal exporting coun-tries hard. Indonesian coal exports fell 50m tonnes in 2015 due to the market glut and Chinese slowdown.

A drop in Indonesian exports to India, which imported around 165 million tonnes of thermal coal in 2015, offers an opportunity for South Africa, analysts said.

Exports last year were helped by improved transport logistics mov-ing coal to RBCT, while lower freight prices for global seaborne coal also aided South African producers to compete for “price-sensitive” Indian buyers, analysts said.

“We have seen some competitive rates coming from Australia, Colum-bia and Russia as well, but South Africa should be a consistent player going forward,” Mike Nelson, the head of petroleum coke and coal at Reli-ance Industries, said. Depending on the use, buyers of coal can expect to pay less if the rock has a lower cal-orific value, which relates to the amount of heat and energy contained.

BUSINESS26 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

QE Index 9,620.57 0.65 %

QE Total Return Index 15,004.25 0.65 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index 3,417.1 0.53 %

QE All Share Index 2,563.27 0.64 %

QE All Share Banks & Financial Services 2,641.97 0.79 %

QE All Share Industrials 2,757.32 1.25 %

QE All Share Transportation 2,259.85 1.70 %

QE All Share Real Estate 2,086.87 0.02 %

QE All Share Insurance 4,034.1 0.03 %

QE All Share Telecoms 1,071.34 0.71 %

QE All Share Consumer Goods & Services 5,435.45 0.46 %

QE INDICES SUMMARY QATAR STOCK EXCHANGE

QE MARKET SUMMARY COMPARISON

GOLD AND SILVER

WORLD STOCK INDICES

07-02-2016 Today 04-02-2016 Previous dayIndex 9,620.57 9,683.62

Change 63.05 196.91

% 0.65 2.08

YTD% 7.75 7.15

Volume 6,818,321 10,041,368

Value (QAR) 215,831,816.35 304,529,099.38

Trades 3,553 5,064

Up 14 | Down 23 | Unchanged 02

GOLD QR134.4784 per grammeSILVER QR1.7320 per gramme

Index Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year LowAll Ordinaries 4930.761 -113.192 -2.24 5379.6 4857.9

Cac 40 Index/D 4274.32 -9.67 -0.23 4586.11 4084.68

Dj Indu Average 16153.54 -295.64 -1.8 18351.4 15370.3

Hang Seng Inde/D 18991.59 -455.25 -2.34 21794.84 18534.3

Iseq Overall/D 6324.69 -31.15 -0.49 6791.68 6146.61

Karachi 100 In/D 32084.06 123.45 0.39 33304.4 29785

Nikkei 225 Index 17191.25 -559.43 -3.15 18951.12 16017.26

S&P 500 Index/D 0 0 0 2134.72 1812.29

EXCHANGE RATECurrency Buying Selling

US$ QR 3.6305 QR 3.6500

UK QR 5.4930 QR 5.3261

Euro QR 4.0279 QR 4.1094

CA$ QR 2.5915 QR 2.6505

Swiss Fr QR 3.6139 QR 3.6671

Yen QR 0.0307 QR 0.0313

Aus$ QR 2.5453 QR 2.6099

Ind Re QR 0.0529 QR 0.0542

Pak Re QR 0.0346 QR 0.0353

Peso QR 0.0749 QR 0.0773

SL Re QR 0.0249 QR 0.0257

Taka QR 0.0458 QR 0.0469

Nep Re QR 0.0334 QR 0.0341

SA Rand QR 0.2280 QR 0.2325

Egyptian pound slips on black marketCAIRO: The Egyptian pound continued to weaken on the black market yesterday, piling more pressure on the cen-tral bank to devalue the currency even as the official rate against the dollar remained unchanged at an auction.

Egypt, which heavily relies on imports for its food and energy needs, is facing a foreign currency crisis with the pound trading at substantially lower rates on the black market than the rate set by the central bank.

The central bank surprised the market in Novem-ber when it strengthened the pound by 20 piasters and has held it steady at 7.73 pounds to the dollar since then.

At yesterday’s auction, the bank sold $39.1m at a cut-off price of 7.7301 pounds to the dollar, unchanged from the previous auction on Thursday.

The black market rate was 8.72 pounds per dollar, compared with a range of 8.63-8.68 traders quoted on Wednesday, even though some traders and bankers said then that no one was selling at such rates.

The bank begun holding meetings with foreign exchange bureaus last week to try to keep a lid on black market rates for the dollar, traders said, in a move one banker said was doomed to fail. Officially the central bank allows exchange bureaus to sell dollars at up to 15 piasters either side of its set price, but the bureaus have been known to demand more for the greenback when it is in short supply.

To help relieve a dollar shortage that has seen imports of essential goods piling up at ports, the cen-tral bank in January raised the cap on foreign currency deposits at banks fivefold to$250,000.

Reuters

DUBAI: Major stock markets in the Middle East fell yesterday after oil prices pulled back and global bourses sold off at the end of last week.

The correlation between oil prices and Gulf equity markets has strengthened in recent months with many investors believ-ing markets will continue to trade in almost lockstep with crude prices in the near term.

In Riyadh, the index dropped 1.3 percent to 5,896 points, erasing Thursday’s 0.8 per-cent gain. The petrochemical sector was one of the main drags with Saudi Basic Indus-tries and Saudi Arabia Fertilizers, the two largest petrochemical producers by market value, falling 1.1 and 0.7 percent respectively.

The index has failed to close over the psychologically important level of 6,000 points since January 14 as short-term traders sell to take profits on every bounce. Long-term investors are cautious about making large commitments to the market because of volatile oil prices.

Saudi Cement erased early gains and closed down 3.3 percent. The company rec-ommended a dividend distribution of SR3 per share for the second half of 2015, versus a proposed dividend of SR2.5 a year ear-lier. But it also halted production at a clinker kiln and scrapped a plan to upgrade mills because of weak cement demand.

Egypt’s index closed down 1.2 percent at 6,126 points, erasing some of the previ-ous session’s 2.2 percent gain. Foreign and non-Egyptian Arab investors were net sell-ers, bourse data showed.

Orascom Telecom tumbled 5.0 per-cent. National Bank of Egypt’s investment arm expressed interest in buying CI Capital, potentially hindering Orascom’s plan to form a major financial operation by acquiring CI Capital from Commercial International Bank.

Palm Hills last traded flat at 2.34 Egyp-tian pounds, off its session high of 2.39 pounds. Egypt’s second-largest listed prop-erty developer reported a 128 percent jump in fourth-quarter net profit to 203.5m Egyp-tian pounds ($26m). It also proposed its first

cash dividend, 0.15 pound per share, and a bonus share issue of one for 20.

“Revenues stood at 957m Egyptian pounds, beating our forecast of 664m Egyptian pounds, on higher-than-expected deliveries of villas, apartments and chalets,” a note by Cairo-based Naeem Brokerage said. Palm Hills is expected to have a strong 2016 in both off-plan sales and deliveries, the note added.

Dubai’s benchmark edged down 0.7 per-cent to 3,037 points in its lowest volume of trade for three weeks. At the opening the index traded in positive territory, but inves-tors then booked profits, erasing some of Thursday’s 2.8 percent gain.

Dubai Financial Market retreated 2.5 percent. The Gulf’s only listed stock exchange reported an 89 percent drop in fourth-quarter net profit on Thursday to Dh15.5m ($4.2m); HSBC had forecast Dh20m.

But Emaar Properties rose 0.9 percent. Investors are waiting for the emirate’s larg-est developer by market value to release its quarterly results in coming days. SICO Bah-rain expects Emaar to make a net profit of Dh1.1bn, a 26 percent jump from a year earlier.

Abu Dhabi’s index fell 0.9 percent in modest volumes, taking its 2016 losses to 4.7 percent. Blue chips First Gulf Bank and Etisalat, which combined make up a little

under half of the bourse’s total market value, fell 1.7 and 0.9 percent respectively.

Small-cap stocks favoured by local retail traders tumbled, with Abu Dhabi National Insurance and Invest Bank plunging 10.0 and 5.6 percent.

In Qatar, the index slid 0.7 percent with Industries Qatar falling 2.8 percent. Blue-chip banks also sold off, with Qatar National Bank and Masraf Al Rayan each retreat-ing more than 1 percent. Oman bucked the regional downtrend. Its index rose 1.1 per-cent on the back of banks, with Bank Muscat climbing 1.8 percent.

HIGHLIGHTSSAUDI ARABIA: The index fell1.3 percent to 5,896 points.EGYPT: The index dropped1.2 percent to 6,126 points.

DUBAI: The index slid0.7 percent to 3,037 points.

ABU DHABI: The index declined0.9 percent to 4,103 points.

QATAR: The index fell0.7 percent to 9,621 points.

OMAN: The index rose1.1 percent to 5,299 points.

KUWAIT: The index edged up0.2 percent to 5,207 points.BAHRAIN: The index was flat

at 1,177 points.

Reuters

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange (Tadawul) is not certain that it can join international index compiler MSCI’s emerging markets index in 2017, the exchange’s act-ing chief executive was quoted as saying.

The kingdom opened its mar-ket to direct foreign investment in June last year. In November, the exchange’s chief executive at the time, Adel Al Ghamdi, told Reu-ters that he aimed for MSCI entry by mid-2017.

But Khalid Al Hussan, who took over on an acting basis in mid-November, told EconomicME magazine, a regional publication, that “there is still a level of uncer-tainty of when this could happen. There are multiple things to be considered, some of them within the control of the exchange, some of them outside.

“If you ask me, I wish for 2017. But whether this is going to hap-pen or not, I don’t know,” he was quoted as saying.

Fund managers believe MSCI inclusion would draw billions of dollars of fresh money to the Saudi market. So far, foreigners have been lukewarm towards the bourse; they owned 4.58 percent of total market capitalisation at the end of January.

Hussan said the exchange had been working closely with MSCI to assess obstacles to inclusion. One is that trades must be settled on the same day, a practice known as T+0; it means foreigners must have large amounts of money on hand before trading, which can be inconvenient given Riyadh’s time zone and its Sunday-Thursday business week. Many big emerg-ing markets have settlement after two days.

“Clearly, it is the T+0 issue that MSCI clients are having with the Tadawul market. There might also be some issues with foreign inves-tor ownership limits,” Hussan was quoted as saying.

He added that he did not think the kingdom could move away from T+0 by 2017, and it was unclear whether MSCI would admit Saudi Arabia merely on the basis of a commitment to make the reform. “If you change the T+0 environment, this takes us beyond 2017. If the Saudi Capital Market Authority decides to change the settlement cycle, the change will take effect, let’s say, in 2018,” he said.

Most Gulf bourses fall

IANS

MUMBAI: Buying activity by the country’s cen-tral bank and the revaluation impact of global currencies swelled India’s foreign exchange (Forex) reserves during the week ended Janu-ary 29, experts said.

According to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) weekly statistical supplement, the over-all forex reserves grew by $1.59bn to $349.15bn for the week under review. The foreign reserves’ kitty had risen by $355.1m to $347.56bn for the week ended January 22.

Analysts attributed the forex gains on the dollar buying activity of the central bank. “India’s foreign exchange reserve grew on the back of RBI’s buying activity. RBI used the buy-ing activity as an instrument to ease the liquidity crunch in the cash market segment,” Anindya Banerjee, associate vice president for currency derivatives with Kotak Securities, said.

In addition, currency revaluations strength-ened the foreign currency assets (FCAs) which is the largest component of India’s Forex reserves. It grew by $1.58bn to $326.63bn during the week under review. Apart from the US dollar, the FCAs consist of nearly 20-30 percent of other major global currencies, securities and bonds.

The individual movements of these curren-cies against the US dollar impacts the overall foreign reserves’ value. According to other cur-rency analysts, periodic US dollar sales by the RBI capped some of the gains made on account of buying activity and currency revaluation dur-ing the period under review.

“The reserves could have increased further, if not for the RBI’s selling activity which also took place during the week under review. The selling activity was conducted to contain the depreciation of rupee beyond the 68-69-level mark,” the analyst noted.

Lately, the Indian rupee has been on a down-ward trajectory due to heavy outflows of foreign

funds from the equity and debt markets. On a weekly basis, the rupee weakened by 16 paise at 67.78-79 (January 29) to a US dollar from its pre-vious close of 67.63 to a greenback (January 22).

It touched a new 29-month low of 68.23 to a US dollar — its weakest level since late August, 2013 during the intra-day trade on January 28.

The country’s gold reserves were stagnant at $17.24bn. The gold reserves had diminished by $303.7m to $17.24bn during the week ended January 1. Furthermore, the special drawing rights (SDRs) were higher by $3.8m at $3.98bn.

Similarly, the country’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) inched-up. It gained $1.2m to $1.29bn.

Indian central bank’s buying activity swells forex reserves

Saudi bourse

uncertain

about MSCI

entry in 2017

BUSINESS VIEWS 27MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Chocolate demand falls as candy bars shrinkBy Nigel Hunt and Marcy Nicholson

Reuters

Candy bars have shrunk and economic growth in Asia has slowed, meaning people are eating less chocolate and its key ingredient cocoa, which has

seen its price fall this year after defying com-modities trends to soar in 2015.

High prices for ingredients last year - including nuts and milk as well as cocoa - helped make chocolate a less affordable treat for consumers in emerging markets such as China and India. Chocoholics in North Amer-ica and Europe, meanwhile, opted for quality at the expense of quantity.

Market research firm Nielsen has esti-mated there was a 3.7 percent year-on-year decline in global chocolate confectionery demand in the September-November period.

With food retailers pressing manufactur-ers to minimise price rises, one response was “shrinkflation”. Some companies put smaller bars in the pack but kept the price unchanged.

“It used to be you had ‘fun sizes’ and now it’s bite sizes,” said Judith Ganes-Chase, soft

commodities expert and president of New York-based J Ganes Consulting. “Fun size” bars in North America are two or three bites big. A much lower-than-expected crop in Ghana, the world’s second largest producer, helped push global cocoa prices up by more than 10 percent last year. The early weeks of 2016 have already seen prices fall back again by as much as 15 percent, as production in Ghana rebounded and some investment funds reduced their holdings in commodi-ties such as cocoa.

But those hoping for chunkier bars or cheaper chocolate are likely to be disap-pointed, with manufacturers likely to pocket most of whatever they save on ingredients.

Euromonitor analyst Jack Skelly said most chocolate makers are focussed on cutting costs at the moment, noting that cocoa prices are still much higher than a few years ago.

“Profit margins are at the forefront for companies at the moment due to global mar-ket slowdown,” he said.

Consumers in more affluent countries have developed a taste for premium choc-olate, with the extra cost partially offset by less frequent purchases.

Premium chocolate maker Lindt & Spruengli reported sales growth of more than 7 percent in 2015, while mass-market rivals such as US-based Hershey Company have struggled.

The maker of Hershey Kisses and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups reported a bigger-than-expected 5 percent drop in quarterly net sales last week, noting weak demand in China and North America.

“We believe the macroeconomic envi-ronment and competitive activity in the international markets where we operate will continue to be a headwind for the chocolate category and Hershey in 2016,” John P. Bil-brey, president and chief executive of Hershey Co said during a conference call.

Euromonitor analyst Skelly said price rises has stunted demand growth in Asia.

“In emerging markets like China and India I think affordability is a real issue which means chocolate isn’t growing as quickly as it could,” he said.

The fall in prices for cocoa has already begun to revive demand for grinders, who turn cocoa beans into ingredients like the cocoa butter used to make chocolate.

“We are seeing very keen demand and off-take which is unusual for this time of the year,” said Jeff Rasinski, vice-president of procurement and risk management for Blommer Chocolate Company, the biggest cocoa grinder in North America.

Last year’s rise in cocoa prices had made it less profitable to grind cocoa. In the 2014/15 (October/September) crop year, the Interna-tional Cocoa Organisation estimated global grindings fell by nearly 5 percent to 4.1 million tonnes. Analysts and traders said the revival in demand for processed cocoa may be driven by manufacturers restocking inventory, and doesn’t necessarily mean people will soon be eating more chocolate.

“There are a lot of people who delayed purchasing when prices were high. They’re going to look to take advantage of the lower prices. That’s going to help improve grind,” Ganes-Chase said.

“It has nothing to do with how much chocolate is being sold on the retail level. This is more about inventory management and trying to lock in lower price levels for manufacturers, bakeries or confectionery manufacturers.”

By Valentina Za and Silvia Aloisi

Reuters

For a man who created the world’s leading eyewear company after growing up in a Milanese orphan-

age and learning metalwork in a tool shop, the issue of who to hand it on to should be relatively easy.

But Leonardo Del Vecchio’s return to the helm of Italy’s Luxot-tica, owner of Ray Ban and Oakley sunglasses, at the age of 80 and insistence none of his six children should carry the burden of such a big firm beg the question of who might fit the bill.

His renewed hands-on role follows the departure of his third CEO in 17 months and three sources close to the company say other managers have also left.

Positions are not being filled, two of the sources said, com-plicating Del Vecchio’s avowed search for a second-line manager from within to step up to the plate.

The governance issues coin-cide with signs of fatigue in the company’s main market, North America, and slowing growth in emerging markets. Del Vecchio has pledged to develop e-commerce, where the company lags, invest-ment that could hit profitability.

Luxottica has ambitious growth plans and a reputation for top-notch managers. Most ana-lysts recommend holding onto the stock or buying more, citing a leading position in an industry set to expand as image-conscious consumers age.

The share price has lost 9 percent since the announcement del Vecchio was formally back in charge but remains up 30 percent since the first of the trio of CEOs left. One source said the depar-ture of long-term boss Andrea Guerra in September 2014 had been followed by that of around a dozen first and second line man-agers, including the latest head of marketing.

Last year, the group lost Fabio D’Angelantonio, a manager close to Guerra who was in charge of mar-keting and oversaw retail chain Sunglass Hut. He was replaced in August by Stefano Volpetti, with Sunglass Hut regional chiefs left to report directly to the CEO.

Two of a total of four sources who spoke to Reuters about the company, asking to remain anon-ymous due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Volpetti had quit and may not be replaced.

A spokesman for Luxottica confirmed Volpetti had left in December for personal reasons and said any decision on his replacement would be announced in due time. Analysts warn

uncertainty at the group after former Procter & Gamble exec-utive Adil Mehboob-Khan lasted only a year as Luxottica’s latest CEO could put candidates off.

One of the sources said del Vecchio’s concentration of power made it look as if that did not mat-ter much to him.

“The plan he has in mind is himself,” the source said.

The company did not make Del Vecchio available for an interview. He has been quoted as saying he is already looking for a successor inside the company and could step down after 2017.

When Guerra left, Del Vec-chio’s eldest son Claudio, CEO of US clothing company Brooks Brothers, was seen by some as a possible candidate. He headed up Luxottica’s operations in North America and subsequently served on the board.

But his role ended when the board was renewed in spring 2015. In a letter to employees the pre-vious October, Del Vecchio said he would keep his family at arms length from the company.

“I would like to reassure you that through these changes there hasn’t been and there never will be any influence from my family, numerous and complex, which for this reason I love intensely and equally in its entirety.”

The following month, Del Vec-chio cut the stakes held by his six children in holding company Delfin, whose 66.5 percent Lux-ottica stake has made him one of the world’s richest people.

They were allocated 12.5 per-cent each so he could leave a 25 percent stake to his second wife, whom he remarried in 2010.

After Guerra left, Luxottica switched to a two-CEO struc-ture, a move seen by critics as an attempt to divide power. As executive chairman, Del Vec-chio is taking on Mehboob-Khan’s responsibility for markets while Massimo Vian will stay on as CEO for product and operations.

An engineer who joined Lux-ottica in 2005, Vian told Reuters last week he and Del Vecchio shared the same vision on pro-duction - the side of the business the billionaire is known to be pas-sionate about. “He’s always been involved,” Vian said.

Luxottica, whose 2015 rev-enue rose 15.5 percent to 8.8 billion euros helped by the dollar’s strength, warned in October profit growth may slow as it steps up investments in retail and logistics.

Research on 10,000 family-owned Italian companies shows performance usually worsens after the person in charge reaches 70, said Guido Corbetta, an Ital-ian academic specialising in family capitalism. But there are exceptions.

Succession issue looms large at world’s top glasses maker

New breed of investors embrace

China’s white-knuckle ride

By Jessica Macy Yu

Reuters

A new breed of small investor is riding China’s rollercoaster stock markets, looking for a quick buck and thriving on the volatility that has sent others scurrying to the

exit clutching their stomachs.Last summer’s 40 percent crash and

a 20 percent drop so far in 2016 have sent trading volumes tumbling on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses, where retail inves-tors account for 85 percent of the business, unlike more developed markets, where insti-tutions dominate.

Many investors have not just been put off by the falls, but by the wild intraday swings, with sharp morning gains frequently swal-lowed by sharper afternoon losses. Not Zhao De. The 26-year-old Beijinger only has around 55,000 yuan ($8,400) to play with, and he wants to make it work hard and fast.

He’s currently out of the stock market, not because it’s too volatile, but because

it stops him making the most of that vola-tility. He wants to take bigger positions for shorter periods, but the stock market makes him wait a day for trades to be settled, which pre-vents intraday trading.

He’s in commodity futures for now.

“If I buy futures, I can directly short sell,” he said.

Liu Jingde, Cinda Securit ies analyst, said this growing new cohort of inves-tors is more open to

the opportunities to make money and has a greater willingness to take risks, using futures and options products.

“It could make the fluctuations of the market more extreme if these investors take more frequent short-term positions,” he said.

China’s securities regulator did not immediately respond to requests for com-ment on the implications for the market.

Rao Xianjun is another of this new breed, who typically have trading apps on their phones and bone up on opportunities through investor communities on media platforms such as QQ, WeChat and Weibo.

He’s looking at stocks in the new energy, technology and medical sectors, but he doesn’t want to tie up his money for long, and says he will be looking to make money by short selling, cashing in on the over-exu-berant response of investors to government policies.

“The nation’s leaders will obviously focus on new initiatives, and after the buzz of it all quietens down ... that’ll be my time to move in.”

Rao is dismissive of traditional investors, the “aunties and uncles” who follow the buzz.

People, perhaps, like the husband and wife team who turn up every morning at the China Securities brokerage in Dongzhimen on the east side of Beijing.

The husband, who gave his surname as Wu, said he had been investing since 2005, and had lost a lot of money on the start-up board in last summer’s crash.

As a retiree in his 60s, he can ill afford to lose. Unlike the younger generation of investors, he said he relies on state media for his information.

“I look at CCTV Finance, as they are the voice of the Communist Party. They don’t dare talk nonsense,” Wu said.

An octogenarian investor in the Founder Securities brokerage in western Beijing

Consumers in more affluent countries have developed a taste for premium chocolate, with the extra cost partially offset by less frequent purchases

Many investors have not just been put off by the falls, but by the wild intraday swings, with sharp morning gains frequently swallowed by sharper afternoon losses

who gave his name as Zheng takes a sim-ilar approach. He was clutching a copy of Reference News, published by state news agency Xinhua.

“I don’t have any fixed plan for 2016,” Zheng said. “I just look at the situation, and I look in the newspaper.”

He shares a view with Wu that the best stocks are the ones that have already soared, that banks are not worth buying, and that gut instinct is the best guide.

This year they will be up against nim-ble young guns hoping to punish them for that instinct and make money even in the worst of times.

Rao thinks the vertiginous ride on Chi-nese stocks has been just the education he needed to achieve that goal. “In a way, I feel lucky; I’ve experienced three bear markets that other investors take over a decade to experience,” he said.

A college student watches an electronic stock board at a stock exchange in Xiamen, in southeast China’s Fujian province.

Last summer’s 40 percent crash and a 20 percent drop so far in 2016 have sent trading volumes tumbling on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses

BUSINESS28 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

NAME IN THE MARKET: M&A VOLUME

TOP TWEETS BLOGS AND VIEWS

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Market Talk

sightCoke and Pepsi play for market share during Super Bowl

National Bank of Egypt keen to buy CI Capital

Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO: Coca-Cola Co, PepsiCo and other con-sumer-facing companies spending big bucks to advertise during Sunday’s Super Bowl football extravaganza will be making a play for more market share to offset a slow economy and less overseas revenue.

In the year since the last Super Bowl, shares of compa-nies selling everyday consumer products like food and clean-ing supplies have outperformed most other sectors, partly because they are seen as rel-atively safe bets in world of growing macroeconomic worries.

But even that sector is vulnerable. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are set to report December-quarter results on Tuesday and Thursday, respec-tively. Wall Street expects lower revenue and net income than a year ago for both, according to Thomson Reu-ters data.

They and other US multina-tionals, including Super Bowl advertisers Anheuser-Busch InBev and Colgate-Palmolive , have been clipped by a strong dollar that is cutting into rev-enues in Latin America and Asia. They also face lackluster demand in the United States, where money saved from low gasoline prices has failed to fuel a long-awaited lift in spending at stores.

Tepid economic growth has pushed companies to spend more on marketing in a bid to steal rivals’ customers. That increase is reflected in pricing

for Super Bowl ads, up 76 per-cent over the past decade, according to market research firm Kantar Media.

More than 100m viewers in the United States and mil-lions more around the world are expected to view Sunday’s Super Bowl in Santa Clara, California.

Many familiar consumer brands are also struggling with the trend toward health-ier foods and reduced loyalty to decades-old brands.

“Smaller niche brands are popular, they’re cooler among the millennials and the incum-bents are challenged,” said Bernstein analyst Ali Dibadj. Larger brands “have to get the consumer to think the brand is worth something and that’s why, in our opinion, they have to advertise more.”

Coca-Cola and Pepsi are expanding their lineups of healthier drinks and snacks to appeal to changing tastes, while Anheuser-Busch is playing defense to growing numbers of small, local brew-eries catering to a thirst for premium, craft beers.

Exencial Wealth Advisors is waiting to see how success-ful Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are at rebalancing their businesses before investing in them, said David Yepez, an investment analyst at the firm, which over-sees $1.4 billion.

The S&P consumer sta-ples sector is expected to see first-quarter earnings fall 0.7 percent, pulled down by a 12.5-percent drop at Wal-Mart Stores. That compares to a 3.6 percent drop, on aver-age, in earnings for S&P 500 companies.

Reuters

CAIRO: The National Bank of Egypt’s investment arm has expressed an interest in CI Cap-ital, a subsidiary of Commercial International Bank (CIB) which has accepted a 1bn Egyptian pound ($128m) bid from Oras-com Telecom and Technology (OTMT).

In a statement dated Feb-ruary 4 that appeared on the Cairo exchange yesterday, CIB said the written interest from state-owned National Bank of Egypt’s Al Ahly Capital did not include a non-binding offer, or an indicative price.

“As we have already received a non-binding offer from a potential buyer which was disclosed on December 17, accordingly, we highlighted to the interested party that they are requested to sign a non-disclo-sure agreement and present a non-binding offer,” CIB said.

Financial, which it bought

in November for almost 650m Egyptian pounds. OTMT is owned by Egyptian billion-aire Naguib Sawiris, one of the country’s most prominent busi-nessmen and founder of the Free Egyptians political party, which had a strong performance in recent parliamentary elections.

NBE’s expression of interest could threaten Sawiris’s hopes of consolidating his new stake in Egypt’s financial services mar-kets. NBE has 50 percent market share of Egypt’s banking indus-try, estimated at between eight and 10m clients.

Sawiris had previously tried to buy EFG Hermes, the largest investment bank in the Middle East, through his New Egypt Investment Fund, but the bid was unsuccessful. OTMT began a due diligence proc-ess checking CI Capital’s books in January. That process is set to complete by Thursday, a CI Capital source said. OTMT has holdings in media, technology and cable businesses as well as energy, transport and logistics.

Capital Comment

In terms of longer-cycle projects, we aren’t initiating...You are going to see us preferentially favour short-cycle investments, and if they don’t meet our hurdles, we won’t invest,

John Watson, Chief Executive Officer, Chevron

AFP

Government subsidies are fuelling a boom in elec-tric vehicles in China, driving hopes for the industry’s global future

as the world’s biggest car market offers economies of scale that could make the technology mainstream.

Sales of electric cars, though still modest, have rocketed four-fold in a year -- thanks in part to lavish gov-ernment handouts -- as Beijing looks to cut down on dangerous air pollu-tion that shrouds urban areas.

The sector has been a contrast with the rest of the market for cars in China, where growth has slowed markedly alongside the wider economy.

And observers say if carmakers can crack China, with its vast popu-lation and burgeoning middle class, the rest of the planet could follow.

“If China gets moving on electric cars then that would automatically lower prices and have a favourable ripple effect across the whole world,” said Ernst and Young auto expert Jean-Francois Belorgey.

“Pollution levels mean the gov-ernment has no other choice” than to encourage the development of new energy vehicles, he added.

Chinese cities are regularly smothered in a haze of particulates, often far exceeding global health guidelines.

While much of the pollution comes from coal burning for indus-try, vehicle exhausts exacerbate the problem.

Only 331,000 of the 24m new cars sold in China last year were elec-tric or plug-in hybrids.

Growing public anger has pro-pelled Beijing to act, with central government subsidies of up to 55,000 yuan ($8,400) for buyers of zero- or low-emission vehicles, which are often matched by local authorities.

The government says it wants 5m “green” vehicles on the road by 2020 in the country of more than 1bn people.

Drivers of such cars can also avoid restrictions imposed on heavy

smog days, when some cities limit vehicles according to their licence plate. They are also exempt from lot-teries for plates several cities have set up in an attempt to cap on the total number of cars.

Domestic firms have benefited, with Warren Buffett-backed Chinese firm BYD claiming to be the biggest electric vehicle maker in the world.

China’s Geely, which owns Volvo, is another major player, and says it wants to shift 90 percent of its sales to hybrid and electric vehicles by 2020 with the government’s blessing.

The subsidy incentives only apply to domestic brands, not foreign man-ufactured cars, and the government says it will gradually phase them out by 2020 to ensure the sector does not become dependent on handouts.

Despite the handicap, foreign firms have also tried to cash in on the potential gold rush.

France’s Renault is one of a grow-ing number of foreign manufacturers that see China as an ideal test ground for low-cost electric vehicles that can attract buyers in other markets.

The company opened its first Chinese factory last Monday in the

central industrial hub of Wuhan and will start to produce electric cars there as early as next year, in cooper-ation with local company Dongfeng.

“If we can succeed in China we can succeed elsewhere,” says Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn, whose firm has already produced several models in Europe. US giant General Motors is making and selling its hybrid Cadillac CT6 in China, and exporting it to the United States, according to reports.

Its American rival Ford has announced it will invest $4.5bn in electric cars between now and 2020, adding 13 models to its range, with a particular focus on China.

Mercedes-Benz also sells several hybrid models in China, and Nissan has a version of its electric Leaf on the Chinese market, and has found favour with domestic consumers.

But as with other parts of the world, the market still remains on the margins because relatively high costs and a lack of charging stations has dampened public enthusiasm. Another problem is that China gen-erates most of the electric power which would be used to charge the cars from coal burning.

Chinese market electrifying for ‘green’ cars with govt aid

The government says it wants 5m “green” vehicles on the road by 2020 in the country of more than 1bn people. Growing public anger has propelled Beijing to act, with central government subsidies of up to 55,000 yuan ($8,400) for buyers of zero- or low-emission vehicles

IMF @IMFNews

Dealogic @Dealogic

Forbes Woman @

ForbesWoman

Adair Turner @

AdairTurnerUK

MoneyBeat

Wealth Adviser

Lagarde: Everybody is linked. The fate of one country is going to be dependent on what others do and vice versa.

Global core investment banking (IB) revenue of $3.9bn in January 2016 was the lowest for the month since January 2012 ($3.8bn)

An impressive 24% of all businesses have more than 50% owner-ship by women

When economists ignore the human fac-tor, we all pay the price

With valuations sinking

back to levels last seen in

2012, during the grim days

of the euro crisis, some

analysts are wondering

whether investors should

be a little more concerned

about credit risks

I-bankers look at us as

second-class citizens… If

you are a wealth manager

who has phoned an I-banker

without going through

proper channels,then you

know exactly what the

adviser means

The Peninsula

DOHA: British rider Mark Cavendish, appearing for new team Dimension Data, is eyeing a winning perform-ance at this week’s Tour of Qatar.

The 30-year-old is one of top rid-ers at this week’s Tour of Qatar, now into it’s 15th edition.

“We’d like to win. We’d like to win at least a stage. We want to be visible and if you are here, it means you’re going to be at the front,” Cavendish said yesterday.

“I believe we can be very success-ful with the riders we have here,” the 2013 Tour of Qatar champion said.

Cavendish, who featured at the Tour of Dubai last week, said he was enjoying his partnership with Dimen-sion Data.

“I’ve only done four days of racing but I’m really loving it. Our training camp was great,” Cavendish said.

“The atmosphere is brilliant. It’s really relaxed. The difference with Etixx is simple: one is Belgian, the other is South African. The difference is as big as that between the two hem-ispheres where both teams belong,” he said.

When asked about his prospects at the 2016 World Track Cham-pionships or the Olympic Games, Cavendish said he will be in a better position to comment on his chances later this week.

“I have to see how I am at the end of this race to decide if I’m going to the track World championships. I’ll make a call then,” Cavendish said.

“Concerning the Olympics, every single day counts. It might not be do-able. I might realise in a few weeks that I have to change everything. There are very few riders who can do the road and the track at the high-est level, but I think I can do that,” he added.

“I’ve won road races and done well on the track. In 2008, I was World Champion and won in De Panne the same week. It’s harder now because track cycling isn’t what

it used to be. The more you rode and trained, the better it worked. As sim-ple as that.

“Now with the omnium, there are three sprint events. It’s so specific that

you need to do specific work for it. It’s not about your endurance anymore. That’s the hardest thing to try and cal-culate. I think it’s do-able.

“With careful planning I can do it. I might not win anything. I want to win throughout the year, on the track and the road, but I might not win any-thing,” Cavendish said.

Katusha rider Alexander Krist-off said he is ‘feeling great’ ahead of today’s first stage at Tour of Qatar.

“In training, I felt OK. Based on the data, everything looks normal, similar to last year,” Kristoff said.

“I think I should be good but you never know how the others are. Some guys have already done some rac-ing and maybe they have a little bit more speed in the legs. We will see,” he added.

“Qatar is very important in my build up for the classics. It’s normally very hard racing with many classic riders here,” Kristoff said.

PAGE | 30 PAGE | 32

Costa and Chelsea keep heat on Van

Gaal

MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016 • 29 Rabia II 1437

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

@peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatarthepeninsulaqatar

Qatar eyes World Tour slot from next yearQuickStep ‘not

invited’ to this

year’s Tour of

Qatar

The Peninsula

DOHA: Etixx-QuickStep rid-ers including Belgian star Tom Boonen won’t be seen in action at this week’s Tour of Qatar for non-cycling reasons, it emerged yesterday.

The organisers of the Tour of Qatar - a hugely popular cycling race in the region - have not invited Etixx-QuickStep due to ‘poor conduct’.

Out of the last 10 years, Quick-Step riders had managed eight overall wins at Tour of Qatar where Boonen had won 22 stages and 4 golden jerseys.

“As organisers of Tour of Qatar, we try to ensure that we make a great effort to make the teams comfortable. QuickStep has won a lot in the Tour of Qatar. We appre-ciated their performances,” Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al Thani, President of Qatar Cycling Federation (QCF), said at a pre-event press confer-ence yesterday.

“We noticed that - not only last year but even before that - we had a problem with their discipline. They delay a lot for the ceremo-nies. They would give interviews while we were waiting.

“And we had limited time on the (live) satellite production. We sent people to hurry them up. They did not talk to them in a very nice way.

“We had warned them that if this continues, we would not invite them. Last year the same thing happened. So we decided that since we respect all teams, we will not send them an invita-tion. We hope to see them in the future,” Sheikh Khalid said.

“It is a decision that has been taken. People must understand that nobody is above the race, above the law. There were asked many times for better conduct.

“They won too many times in Qatar. They (probably) felt at home, maybe they thought they could do whatever they want. We have talked to them before and it did not help. There were sev-eral incidents. So we decided we should make an example,” Sheikh Khalid said.

By Rizwan Rehmat

The Peninsula

DOHA: Organisers of the hugely popular Tour of Qatar race are hop-ing for an upgrade to UCI World Tour series status next year, it emerged yesterday.

The 15th edition of Tour of Qatar starts today when 8 World Tour teams and other sides will be hoping to clinch the honours at Doha Corniche on the final of the five-stage finish on Friday.

“We have applied for World Tour status with the UCI. I hope we are successful in our bid. We hope that we join the calendar in 2017,” Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al Thani, President of Qatar Cycling Federation (QCF), said.

“Now this is a decision that will be taken by cycling world govern-ing body UCI. We have great history of staging memorable Tour of Qatar races. I hope all of this helps us in

getting the upgrade we are looking for,” Sheikh Khalid said.

“Since 2001, UCI initiated what’s called a World Tour. There are 18-20 teams registered as Pro Tour teams. There is a promotion and relegation system. Our race was ranked a notch below before the Tour was launched,” Sheikh Khalid said.

“Only 50 percent of Pro Tour Teams are allowed to feature at events such as ours. Now we have 8 Pro teams participating at our event this week. If we get an upgrade to a World Tour event, then next year all teams will be World Tour teams,” Sheikh Khalid explained.

“A World Tour event also runs sim-ilar duration - five or six days. It doesn’t make any difference. You register by stages. You could even have four-stage event. The number of events don’t make any difference to teams or riders,” the QCF President said.

With increasing number of cycling events taking place around the region and the Asian continent, Qatar feels it is time to get maximum mileage out of their events.

“The calendar is becoming very busy around the world. The cycling world is booming. Teams are choos-ing to somewhere else. Once it is a World Tour event, teams will be lin-ing up to come here. It will be more important for them to be here,’ Sheikh Khalid explained.

The QCF chief said a World Tour status means increase in prize money for teams and riders.

“Yes, there will be an obvious

increase in prize money for riders and teams. The fees are high for the teams. We don’t know if other races (in the region) will be going for World Tour status. We could get it with other teams - maybe Qatar and UAE getting it together but we don’t know,” he said.

Sheikh Khalid said tomorrow the riders will get a first-hand glimpse of the 2016 World Road Champion-ships route.

“This year is very special for the riders. This is year of the 2016 World Championships. We will test the worlds route (tomorrow, second stage)

and it happens to be on the National Sports Day. As you can see we have very good teams,” Sheikh Khalid said.

The QCF chief said the organis-ing committee are committed to a five-day race rather than a six-day competition.

“There is technical reason for reducing the number of stages. There are so many events happening in the region at the same time. We feel that so many races are coming up. The cal-endar is full. We want to reduce the pressure on the riders,” Sheikh Kha-lid said

Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al Thani (third right), President of Qatar Cycling Federation speaking at a press conference on the eve of the Tour of Qatar in Doha yesterday. Five-time Tour de France winner, and Belgian legend Eddy Merckx (third from left) was also present. Picture by: S Matramkot/The Peninsula

QCF are pioneers in the region, says legend MerckxThe Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar are pioneers in cycling in the Middle East, retired Belgian star Eddy Merckx (pictured) said yester-day.

The 15th edition of the Tour of Qatar starts today. The hugely pop-ular five-day race is one of many top sports events staged by the Qatari capital every year.

“In 2001, H H the Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani was the person who invited us to start this Tour,” Merckx said yesterday.

“We were received by Emir H H

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and he decided that we hold the Tour of Qatar,” the five-time Tour de France winner said at a pre-event press conference yesterday.

“Ever since then, we’ve had a great collaboration with Qatar Cycling Federation (QCF). The coop-eration has been great. This is the 15th edition. We are proud that Qatar will stage the 2016 UCI World Road Championships.

“Qatar are the pioneers in cycling in the region. They staged the first Ladies Tour of Qatar as well. After the events were staged in Qatar, we saw countries like Oman and the UAE

following them. We have great sprint-ers for this event. I am sure we will have a nice race like we did during the Ladies Tour of Qatar (last week),” Merckx, 70, said.

When asked about the worlds route to be used during this week’s Tour of Qatar, Merckx said it was used during last week’s women’s race also.

“One lap is not enough. You can say more when men will ride four laps (during stage two tomorrow). Then you will have a better idea.

“One lap is gone so fast. It also depends on the wind. It is not so easy, but it is very safe. The winds

are strong. That can make race dif-ficult for riders. We will get a better idea after riders do four laps. There is no danger at all,” he said.

When reminded about the absense of a few teams at this week’s event, Merckx said: “I don’t think it (their absence) makes any difference. We have the Olympics and the Tour de France. Lot of the riders don’t want to take too much pressure.”

He added: “There is a new race in Valencia. Then there was a race in Australia. There are more races. Teams decide to come or not. Yes, all of this pushes the World Tour. But teams can refuse to come to races.”

Etixx-QuickStep rider Tom Boonen, speaking to journalists in Doha in this February 9 2015 file picture.

We have great history of staging memorable Tour of Qatar races. I hope all of this helps us in getting the upgrade we are looking for, says QCF President

Upbeat Cavendish eyes winning performance in Doha

Mark Cavendish puts on the yellow jersey, after receiving it from Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al Thani, President of Qatar Cycling Federation in this file picture of February 2013.

Tour of QatarStage 1: Dukhan to Al Khor Corniche,

176km

Stage 2: Katara Cultural Village -

Qatar University, 135km

Stage 3: Lusail - Lusail (ITT), 11km

Stage 4: Al Zubarah Fort - Madinat Al

Shamal, 189km

Stage 5: Sealine Beach Resort - Doha

Corniche, 114km

Coskee

Willett wins Dubai Desert Classic in style

SPORT30 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Costa and Chelsea keep heat on Van Gaal

AFP

LONDON: Diego Costa pounced in stoppage time as Chelsea nipped Man-chester United’s mini-revival in the bud with a 1-1 draw in the Premier League yesterday.

Jesse Lingard’s smartly taken 61st-minute strike at a rainy Stam-ford Bridge had set United on course for a third straight win, which would have lifted them to within four points of the Champions League places.

But Costa equalised in the 91st minute, rounding United goalkeeper David de Gea to score and thereby extending interim manager Guus Hiddink’s unbeaten run to 10 matches since he succeeded the sacked Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho’s shadow continues to stalk United manager Louis van Gaal and reports that the Portuguese has been lined up to replace him are unlikely to go away after a result that left his side six points below the top four in fifth place.

Costa’s goal, his seventh in nine games, gave Chelsea something to show for their efforts after an

awkward afternoon that saw Kurt Zouma stretchered off with a seri-ous-looking knee injury.

Hiddink’s men remain 13th, 17 points below the top four. John Terry was making his first home appear-ance since revealing that he will leave at the season’s end and while he did not mention the matter in his pro-gramme notes, Chelsea’s fans made their displeasure at the club’s failure to offer him a new deal by chanting his name from kick-off.

Both teams were unchanged, but while Chelsea made a cautious start, United picked up where they had left off in the mid-week 3-0 win over Stoke City.

Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and Michael Carrick both dispatched long-range sighters before Thibaut Courtois was called into serious action in the 18th minute, palming Anthony Mar-tial’s drive around the post.

Chelsea were struggling to get out of their own half, but United could not maintain their initial rhythm and as the half wore on, the hosts took the upper hand.

Costa and Nemanja Matic threat-ened with headers, the latter obliging De Gea to leap to his right and save, while Costa drilled a shot across goal and wide from Oscar’s pass.

Oscar planted a shot into the Shed End after a one-two with Cesar Azpilicueta and Willian flashed a cross across goal after leaving

Borthwick-Jackson on the deck with a sharp feint. United flickered -- Mar-ouane Fellaini heading wide, Matteo Darmian crossing menacingly -- before Chelsea’s hands flew into the air when a shot from Terry struck Daley Blind on the elbow inside the visitors’ box.

But as replays showed, the Dutch-man’s arm had been clamped to his chest and referee Michael Oliver waved away the penalty appeals.

United reasserted themselves

after the change of ends and Courtois was obliged to parry a low shot from Wayne Rooney before Martial breezed past Branislav Ivanovic and shot wide. Shortly after, a curling effort from Lin-gard drew a one-handed stop from Courtois, who sprang to his feet to shovel Rooney’s drilled follow-up behind. Seeking to give his side an attacking foothold, Hiddink intro-duced Eden Hazard in place of Oscar in the 54th minute, and a minute later his hand was forced again following

Zouma’s injury. The 21-year-old France international screamed in agony after landing awkwardly following an aerial challenge and following four minutes’ treatment he was stretchered off, with Gary Cahill coming on.

Two minutes later United added insult to injury by taking the lead, Rooney cushioning Borthwick-Jack-son’s cross into the path of Lingard, who took a touch before hooking home a right-foot shot on the turn.

Hiddink added Pedro Rodriguez

to the mix and after De Gea had saved brilliantly from Ivanovic and Cesc Fab-regas, Costa equalised.

United substitute Memphis Depay conceded possession, allowing Fab-regas to slide a pass into the box, and with Borthwick-Jackson succeed-ing only in sliding the ball away from De Gea, Costa had the simple task of slotting into an empty net. The Spain international might even have won it, but after taking aim from Hazard’s pass, he was denied by De Gea.

Barca equal unbeaten record with Levante winAFP

MADRID: Barcelona equalled a club record of 28 games unbeaten to move three points clear at the top of La Liga with a hard-fought 2-0 win at Levante yesterday.

Gary Neville’s stay in Spain as Valencia boss may be short-lived as his winless La Liga streak stretched to nine games with a 1-0 defeat at fellow strugglers Real Betis.

Barca were far from their best in coach Luis Enrique’s 100th game in charge, but David Navarro’s first-half own goal and Luis Suarez’s strike in stoppage time was enough to secure a 10th consecutive win in all competitions.

The European champions now lead Atletico Madrid by three points and have a game in hand on Diego Simeone’s men.

Third-placed Real Madrid are seven points adrift of Barca, but can cut the gap when they travel to Granada.

Barca’s 28-game unbeaten run matches the feat of Pep Guardiola’s side in 2010/11 with Enrique’s men well on course to repeat their treble of Champions League, La Liga and Copa del Rey from last season.

“More than statistics, I am inter-ested in the collective objectives that we have and we can only reach them at the end of the season,” said Enrique.

“We are very well-positioned in all competitions, but there is a long way to go.”

Barca needed a slice of luck to open the scoring on 21 minutes as Jordi Alba burst down the left and his ball into the box was deflected into his own net by Navarro.

Levante remain rooted to the foot of the table, but had won their previous two home games and deserved to be at least level at the break as they out-played the Catalans in the latter stages of the first-half.

Jose Luis Morales came closest to equalising when his low effort came back off the post eight minutes before the break.

Levante continued to enjoy the better of the game in the second period, but found clear-cut chances hard to come by as former Manchester United forward Giuseppe Rossi’s shot from outside the box was the only time Bravo was forced into action.

Barca had barely threatened themselves after half-time, but did seal the points with the last move of the match as Lionel Messi picked out an unmarked Suarez to fire home his 36th goal of the season.

Valencia remain just four points above the relegation zone as Nev-ille failed to produce the reaction he hoped for following a 7-0 thrashing

at the hands of Barcelona in the Copa del Rey in midweek.

“What matters are results. We knew this would be about one or two moments and they have not gone our way,” said Neville.

“It’s just not going for us at the moment. That was a pretty solid away performance. I continue to work, I continue to have belief and any conversations with the owners

are between me and the owners.”Betis hadn’t won for nine league

games either, but eased their rele-gation worries as Ruben Castro took advantage of some statuesque Valen-cia defending to tap home his 10th goal of the season four minutes after half-time.

Alvaro Negredo had a great chance to equalise moments later, but Juan Manuel Vargas got back to clear his

effort off the line. Valencia were given a small lifeline when Jorge Molina’s goal was ruled out for a debatable offside decision, but any hopes of a fightback seemed gone when Jose Luis Gaya was sent-off for two quickfire bookings.

Yet, Neville’s men were also to be denied by a dubious offside decision when Shkodran Mustafi’s stoppage time header was ruled out.

Barcelona’s Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez celebrates a goal during the Spanish League match against Levante UD at the Ciutat de Valencia stadium in Valencia yesterday.

Leicester can

emulate Forest’s

1978 triumph,

says O’Neill

Reuters

LONDON: Former Leicester City manager Martin O’Neill believes Saturday’s stunning victory over Manchester City could spur the Foxes to become the most unex-pected English champions since his Nottingham Forest side of 38 years ago.

Forest won the league by seven points in 1978 in their first season after promotion and went on to tri-umph in the European Cup in the following two years.

O’Neill, currently manager of Ireland, compared Leicester’s 3-1 away win over title rivals City to an equally stunning success just before Christmas 1977 when the Forest team he played in under Brian Clough won 4-0 at Manches-ter United.

“We scrambled up from the old Second Division in third position and up until Christmas time peo-ple were saying our bubble would burst,” he told BBC radio’s Sports-week programme.

“It never did. The Old Traf-ford game was really something special and you can compare this great result for Leicester at the Etihad.”

Rated as 5,000-1 outsiders before the start of the season after avoiding relegation last May, Claudio Ranieri’s side now top the table by five points with 13 games to play.

“While the other teams are fal-tering, as well as being involved in other competitions, they just keep going on,” said O’Neill, who is in San Francisco with his Ireland assistant Roy Keane to watch the NFL Super Bowl.

“When you are opening up a gap and games are running out, you’ve got to give yourself a chance. They are winning games with less possession than the opposition but that has continued month after month.

“If ever there was an oppor-tunity, this is it. And it should give hope to every other team.”

Leicester, managed by O’Neill from 1995-2000, play away to another of their title rivals Arse-nal next Sunday.

Tottenham have title faith, says PochettinoAFP

LONDON: Tottenham manager Mau-ricio Pochettino is convinced his players are starting to believe they can deliver the Premier League title to White Hart Lane.

Pochettino’s side moved into sec-ond place, five points behind leaders Leicester, after a 1-0 win over Wat-ford at White Hart Lane on Saturday.

The north Londoners took advantage of Leicester’s victory at Manchester City to move above Manuel Pellegrini’s side ahead of their crucial visit to Eastlands next

weekend. A victory there would underline Tottenham’s title creden-tials, but Pochettino has no doubts his side can sustain their challenge and be crowned English champions for the first time since 1961.

“I believe in my players, I believe in my squad. We will see. It is diffi-cult to guess what will happen in the future,” Pochettino said.

“In football belief is the most important word. If we believe, any-thing can happen. I believe in my squad and they believe too in the way we play. This synergy is very impor-tant for the future.

“You can see in their eyes, the

feeling, the energy that they believe. But it is better not to speak too much, only show, work hard.

“This is the better way to show we are ready to compete. And after, we see what happens, but the most important thing is to do rather than speak.”

Few would have predicted a top two of Leicester and Tottenham at this late stage of the season, but Pochet-tino isn’t surprised by his team’s rise or the stunning ascent of the Foxes.

“The gap we have now with Leicester is five points. We are in a very good position but we need to keep working and not think too much

about the future so we can be ready to compete again like we did today,” he said. “For me historically Totten-ham is bigger than a lot of clubs in England. It is not a surprise we are in a good position.

“Maybe in the last few years but in the past Tottenham showed they are one of the best or one of the big-ger clubs in England.

“Leicester fully deserve their posi-tion and how they won the game they completely deserved it because they were better than Manchester City.

“But our position, we do not look at Leicester or different clubs. The challenge is to win and improve every

day in every competition and we see what happens in the end.”

Kieran Trippier’s first goal for Tot-tenham was enough to seal the points against Watford, although the home side’s domination meant the margin of victory could have been much wider.

Watford manager Quique Sanchez Flores admitted his side had been out-played and conceded the demands of a testing week that also included a midweek draw with Chelsea had taken its toll.

“We had three players who haven’t trained since the last match. We have Valon Behrami, Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney. Three players who we didn’t know the exact (fitness) level,” he said.

Manchester United’s Spanish goalkeeper David de Gea watches as Chelsea’s Brazilian-born Spanish striker Diego Costa scores during the English Premier League football match at Stamford Bridge in London yesterday.

Manager Hiddink extends unbeaten run to 10 matches as Costa scores equaliser in injury time against Manchester United

Spanish League Results

Levante 0 Barcelona 2

(Navarro 21-og, Suarez 90+2)

Real Betis 1 (Ruben Castro 49) Valencia 0

Playing today

Espanyol vs Real Sociedad (1930)

English Premier League results

Bournemouth 0 Arsenal 2 (Ozil 23,

Oxlade-Chamberlain 24)

Chelsea 1 (Costa 90+1) Manchester

United 1 (Lingard 61)

SPORT 31 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Monaco get Champions League boost

AFP

PARIS: Monaco’s hopes of Cham-pions League football next season got a boost with a 1-0 win over Nice on Saturday as Lyon rekindled their European challenge by beating Angers 3-0. On a stormy, tense day in Ligue 1, seven players were red-carded in seven games.

The Riveria derby clash between the second and third placed teams failed to ignite Monaco’s Stade Louis II before midfielder Tiemoue Bakay-oko struck after 81 minutes.

A long free-kick off the boot of Portuguese midfielder Moutinho found Bakayoko who slotted in after the ball had bounced in front of Nice goalkeeper Yoan Cardinale.

The win allows Monaco, second behind runaway leaders Paris Saint-Germain, to move six points clear of Nice, who remain third, two points ahead of Angers with Lyon moving up to fifth a further point back.

Monaco’s Moroccan midfielder

Nabil Dirar was sent off after he vig-orously disputed a call by referee Tony Chapron, as Angers were also playing a man down following a 16th minute red card for Thomas Mangani.

“The players showed that apart from PSG, there is no team better than us. We know each other well, we know how to play at 10 and showed this,” said Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim. “The players had a great match.” “Paradoxically, the sending off seemed to do them good,” said Nice coach Claude Puel.

“If they continue to be success-ful like that they can even envisage catching Paris,” added Puel of Monaco who trail Paris Saint-Germain by 21 points.

The reigning three-time cham-pions will be looking to extend their Ligue 1 unbeaten streak at bitter rivals Marseille.

Lyon secured back-to-back league wins for the first time since November and gave new coach Bruno Genesio a first league victory away from home.

Last season’s runners-up took an early lead through Christophe Jallet, and the hosts fell two behind when winger Rachid Ghezzal picked out the roof of the net just after half-time.

Corentin Tolisso wrapped up the scoring late on as Lyon moved to within three points of the Champions League places.

“It is satisfying to have a second consecutive victory and what was important is the way we found con-fidence as a team,” Genesio said.

“I am not sure that it was a bet-ter performance than in the defeat at

Saint Etienne or the draw with Mar-seille, but with our first real chance we got the opening goal and that is always so important now in Ligue 1.”

With eight of the bottom nine teams in action in the five late

Saturday kick-offs it was unsurpris-ingly a tense evening of football.

Montpellier blew a great chance to haul themselves out of the bot-tom three as they were held to a 1-1 draw by ten-man Lorient. Francois

Bellugou was given a straight red card, and Kevin Berigaud took advantage to give Frederic Hantz’s Montpellier a half-time lead.

But Jimmy Cabot scored his first goal for Lorient since joining from

Troyes last month to snatch a point.Reims made the most of Montpel-

lier’s slip-up as they saw off Caen 2-0.Goals from Thievy Bifouma and

Prince Oniangue helped take Olivier Guegan’s Reims three points clear of the relegation zone.

Bastia picked up a much-needed victory by easing past bottom club Troyes 2-0 despite having a man sent off for the fifth time in five league games. Goalkeeper Jean Louis Leca’s red card was sandwiched by a Floyd Ayite brace for the Corsicans, as visit-ing Troyes were reduced to nine men in a feisty encounter.

Gazelec Ajaccio are now winless in six league games and just a point above the drop zone after playing out a goalless draw with fellow strugglers Guingamp, who had Lionel Mathis kick off the pattern of the night with his 10th minute dismissal.

Meanwhile, a 0-0 stalemate with Nantes leaves Toulouse second-from-bottom and six points from safety.

Midfielder Bakayoko strikes for Monaco in Riveria derby clash between second and third-placed teams at Stade Louis II

FRENCH LIGUE 1 RESULTS

Monaco 1 (Bakayoko 81) Nice 0

Angers 0 Lyon 3 (Jallet 13, Ghezzal 46,

Tolisso 81)

Toulouse 0 Nantes 0

Bastia 2 (Ayité 10, 83-pen) Troyes 0

Lorient 1 (Cabot 49) Montpellier 1 (Ber-

igaud 45+2)

Gazélec-Ajaccio 0 Guingamp 0

Caen 0 Reims 2 (Bifouma 20, Oni-

angue 63)

Monaco’s Bernardo Silva (left) challenges Nice’s Ricardo Barbosa Pereira during their French Ligue 1 match at the Louis II Stadium on Saturday.

Title woe for Mancini as Verona hold Inter 3-3AFP

MILAN: Roberto Mancini was left counting the cost of missed chances as Inter Milan slipped further out of Serie A title contention with a 3-3 draw away to basement side Verona yesterday.

The result left Inter in fourth place and in danger of trailing Napoli by 11 points if Maurizio Sarri’s league leaders beat Carpi later Sunday.

Inter’s bid for just their sec-ond win in their past six outings got off to the perfect start when Jeison Murillo rose above the hosts’ defence to head past Pierluigi Gollini on eight minutes.

But even before then the visitors had missed two great chance to break the deadlock through Rodrigo Pala-cio, who fired straight at goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini, and Marcelo Bro-zovic after he sent his shot over the bar.

And the game turned on its head in three first-half minutes when Filip Helander and Eros Pisano struck to give Verona a 2-1 lead just after the quarter hour.

Helander pulled Verona level with a near carbon copy of Murillo’s

goal, the Swedish centre-back ris-ing above the Inter defence to glance a header past Samir Handanovic at the keeper’s far post.

Pisano was given even more space by Inter’s defence three min-utes later when he rose to meet a free kick to see his header spin into the back of the net.

Inter could have levelled in spectacular style soon after when Brozovic met a cut-back cross from the byeline with a superb volley that spun just wide of Gollini’s upright.

Gollini did well to come out and block Palacio’s cross-shot into the area as Icardi ran in for the final touch, then had no problem collect-ing Geoffrey Kondogbia’s soft effort from outside the area.

Those misses proved costly when Artur Ionita rose above the Inter defence to beat Handanovic

with a third header to send Vero-na’s fans, who had celebrated their side’s opening win of the campaign against Atalanta last week, delirious just three minutes before the hour.

But Inter were far from finished and quickly capitalised on soft defending to pull level with 12 min-utes on the clock.

Croatian international Ivan Peri-sic replaced Felipe Melo at half-time as Mancini tinkered with his forma-tion, and just after the hour sent Icardi through between two defend-ers for the Argentine striker to poke the ball past the onrushing Gollini and into the net.

Inter began to pile the pressure on but Gollini was alert, the ‘keeper notably stopping another point-blank effort from Palacio with his boot.

But Verona’s defence let the ‘keeper down 12 minutes before the end when Perisic ran at the far post to meet Palacio’s pacy cross and beat Gollini first-time.

Gollini did well to parry Eder’s swerving effort, but Verona, too, spurned late chances with Gilber-to’s effort coming off the near post and late substitute Romulo lobbing Handanovic only to see the ball go wide of post and crossbar.

SERIE A RESULTSVerona 3 (Helander 13, Pisano 16,

Ionita 57) Inter Milan 3 (Murillo 8,

Icardi 61, Perisic 78)

On SaturdayBologna 1 (Giaccherini 63) Fiorentina 1

(Bernardeschi 59)

Genoa 0 Lazio 0

Inter’s Jeison Murillo (left) celebrates with his team-mates after scoring a goal during the Italian Serie A match against Verona at Bentegodi Stadium in Verona, Italy, yesterday.

Mourinho says he will be back soonReuters

LONDON: Jose Mourinho, sacked as manager of Chelsea in December seven months after winning the Pre-mier League title, has said he is not enjoying his time out of work and will soon be back in management.

He did not comment directly on media reports that have heavily linked him with Louis Van Gaal’s job at Manchester United.

But he did say that his family will remain in London and that he liked the competitiveness of English football.

“For sure, I will be back soon,” the Portuguese told GQ magazine in an interview published on its website (www.gq-magazine.co.uk). It did not say when the interview took place.

“(London) is an amazing place to live and for the family to be together,” said Mourinho.

“As a professional, I am ready to

move,” added the former Real Madrid coach.“I need competition every week. In Spain I was at an amazing club but I had four matches a year - Barcelona v Real Madrid, Real Madrid v Barcelona.”

Mourinho, who also won the league with Chelsea in his first two seasons there from 2004 to 2006, suggested that he deliber-ately created “instability” among players once they won trophies, to avoid any complacency.

Manager Ranieri grapples with Leicester favourites tagAFP

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom: Manchester City manager Manuel Pel-legrini declared Leicester City Premier League title favourites after Claudio Ranieri masterminded a stunning 3-1 victory over his side at the Etihad Sta-dium.

Two set-piece goals from Rob-ert Huth, either side of a superb effort from Riyad Mahrez, allowed leaders Leicester to pull six points clear of chief rivals City and five points clear of second-place Tottenham Hotspur.

British bookmakers reacted by making Leicester -- 5,000-1 long-shots to win the title at the start of the campaign -- favourites for the first time this season, and Pellegrini could not argue with their judgement.

“If they continue the way they are

playing, they are favourites, as they are doing well and have an advantage in points,” he told reporters after Satur-day’s game in soggy east Manchester.

“It just depends on what they can do from now until the end of the sea-son, but having to play 13 games more is very difficult to predict.”

Leicester manager Ranieri, whose even-tempered approach has been one of the highlights of his team’s unexpected success story, made light of their new and unfamiliar position.

“I don’t believe the bookmakers,” said the Italian, whose side visit Arse-nal next weekend. “At the beginning of the season the bookmakers said, ‘Sack Ranieri.’ I hope one time they are right, OK?

“I don’t know why, this season is a crazy league. I don’t think about if we win the league, I don’t want to think about it. “My mind goes over the next seven days -- Arsenal, another tough

match, other fantastic players, another fantastic stadium. But we’re alive and we want to fight.

“I hope we concentrate as well these last matches and continue our dream.”

Leicester’s visit to Arsenal could

have a big say in the destiny of the championship, while City focus on a home meeting with fellow title hope-fuls Tottenham Hotspur.

Pellegrini’s announcement that he will hand over to Pep Guardiola at the end of the season seemed to have had

a negative effect on his players, who only had Sergio Aguero’s late conso-lation to show for their efforts.

But he said: “I think I talked too much about last week. I don’t think it is fair to try to have excuses for other things.”

The City manager added: “Of course, we need to improve. We need to improve a lot from this game. We are not in our best moment, we just have 14 players fit and we have played a lot of games.

“We continue to be involved in all the competitions and it is very impor-tant to recover from this.

“We talked with the players before the game. It was our chance at home to recover the lead in the table. We couldn’t do it, now we are six points behind Leicester and have another 39 points to play for.

“So it is important to be focused game by game and try to beat

Tottenham here as they are another team fighting for the title.”

For Leicester, the chief concern is about keeping feet on the ground, but Ranieri did not want to dampen the travelling supporters’ spirits on one of the great days in the club’s history.

“It’s fantastic. They must continue to dream,” he said.

“We know and enjoy it. We don’t leave anything, we want to fight, but without pressure. For us it’s impor-tant to play and continue in this way because it is a strange league.

“The spirit is fantastic, but we said this from the beginning of my moments here in Leicester. There is a fantastic dressing room. On the pitch they help each other, they fight for each other, that’s fantastic.

“The spirit, we are 11 on the pitch, we play every time (as) 11. It is the best spirit I remember in my career. As well as a player, it is the same.”

Leicester City’s manager Claudio Ranieri reacts during the English Premier League match against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain, on Saturday.

SPORT32 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

D-day arrives as Qatar sets the ball rolling for NSD events

The Peninsula

DOHA: With only one day to go to the start of Qatar’s National Sport Day, the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) is encouraging all residents to make the most of Qatar’s sport-dedicated public holiday by celebrating Olym-pic year with all the family.

Speaking ahead of the start of NSD 2016, Secretary General of the QOC Dr Thani Al Kuwari said Qatar remains one of few countries to run a national campiagn on encouraging sports as a way of life.

“Qatar is one of the few countries in the world with a national holiday dedicated to sport,” Dr Al Kuwari said.

“We encourage all residents to take advantage of this unique oppor-tunity to participate in sports and set their life on a healthier track whilst

having fun with their family and friends.

“With the Rio 2016 Olympic Games around the corner, we call on all of Qatar’s residents to be a part of the Olympic spirit – regardless of age and ability – and to unite in a shared passion for sport and #BeOlympic,” Dr Al Kuwari said.

The QOC is offering three lucky winners the opportunity to win an iPad on National Sport Day.

Simply take a photo of yourself participating in any of the sporting activities taking place across Qatar and post it on social media with the hashtag #BeOlympic and tag the QOC.

The three photos that best display the Olympic spirit will win.

The QOC have teamed up with the United Development Company to organise a host of activities for all ages on the Lido Venezia Beach in the Qanat Quartier of The Pearl.

From 9am to 4pm the beachfront will come alive with sport, entertain-ment and competitions.

Activities will include football, volleyball, basketball, fitness classes, an outdoor gym, an inflatable human foosball and wall climbing, plus many more.

To mark Doha’s hosting of the 2016 UCI Road World Championships,

there will be an opportunity for visi-tors to the Lido Veneziaactivity area to win a brand new bike.

Cycling fans will also be able to watch the Tour of Qatar travel through The Pearl between 1-3pm, during which time the roads to and from The Pearl will be closed.

Qatar’s National Sport Federa-tions will also be organising activities throughout Qatar in areas such as Katara Cultural Village, the Corniche, Aspire Park and Al Gharafa.

Qatar’s residents will have an opportunity to try over 30 dif-ferent sports which range from sailing, boxing and handball to karate,

gymnastics and para-sport. The full list of NSD activities and

their location can be found on QOC’s website http://bit.ly/1RYGdxV.

National Sport Day is an annual event celebrated across Qatar on the second Tuesday of February.

Qatar is one of few countries in the world to have a public holiday dedicated to sport.

Qatar, the sports hub of the region, aims to bring the nation together in a shared celebration of sport and inspire people to lead active and healthy lifestyles.

This year’s National Sport Day will take place tomorrow.

A series of events lined up for Qatar’s National Sport Day set to be celebrated by young and old across the country

Athletics: Nigeria, the new marathon hub?AFP

LAGOS: The infamously con-gested, concrete jungle of Lagos is far from a runners’ paradise, but with the launch of a new annual marathon on Saturday organisers hope to show that the city’s bad reputation is undeserved.

Over 20,000 participants turned out before dawn on a typ-ically muggy morning in Lagos to compete in the biggest marathon the city has seen in thirty years.

The streets of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest metropolis, usu-ally clogged with cars, battered mini busses and whizzing okadas -- motorbike taxis -- were cleared for the event and patrolled by lines of armed police and soldiers.

Runners, some barefoot and others decked out head to toe in candy-coloured athletic gear, braved the haze, taking advan-tage of the rare opportunity to run on a smooth road with air free of exhaust fumes.

“It’s kind of hectic to stay in Lagos, but people make it work,” Lolade McJohnson, a 33-year-old lawyer cheering on runners, said.

“After this, we’ll have more people interested in running, maybe now we’ll even have a Nige-rian champion.”

Unlike in Kenya and Ethiopia, two countries whose runners have dominated marathons for years, or in marathon-crazed South Africa, Nigeria has yet to develop a long distance running culture.

For some, it’s a casualty of years of chronic mismanagement of lucrative oil funds that has left Africa’s biggest economy with-out basic infrastructure, let along quality sports programs.

“In the 70’s and 80’s there was a strong culture of running, all that died,” Lagos City Marathon spokesman Olukayode Thomas said.

“But that is a culture we’re try-ing to revive.”

With Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, taking a massive hit from the low price of crude and battling an almost seven-year Boko Haram Islamic insurgency, Thomas said events like the mar-athon show it’s not only doom and gloom for the country.

“It’s not just about Boko Haram, there are a lot of positives in Nigeria.”

Thousands of people turned out to encourage the runners along the 42 kilometre stretch of road, with gardeners hosing down panting contestants and a mini-marching band composed of a trumpeter and two drummers adding an impromptu soundtrack to the event.

Kenyan Abraham Kipton won the marathon and the $50,000 prize with a time of 2:16.21, cross-ing the finish line with his arms raised in victory before collapsing on the ground just after the fin-ish line. Though happy for his win, he had to acknowledge Lagos’s oppressive heat.

“It is my first time running in very high humidity but I thank God for this day,” Kipton said. “Nigeria is very hot but it is very good,” agreed the women’s winner Ethi-opian Halima Hussein Kayo.

Adeyemi Kazeem, one of the first Nigerian finishers, said that despite not placing in the top three he was proud of his performance.

“I feel good, I can inspire more people to run in Nigeria,” he said.

Still in its infancy, the race suf-fered a few hitches.

One runner said that by the time he reached the refreshment station there was no bottles of water left and was forced to pull out of the race at the 30 kilome-tre mark. But with the next Lagos marathon already pencilled in for February next year, Thomas insists these are just hiccups in the grand scheme of things.

“We were facing many fears before the race -- security, traffic -- but so far there’s not been any issues,” Thomas said, “it can only get better.”

More money needed to fight cheats: WADAReuters

TORONTO: The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) faces a challenge to tackle cheating in sport while it has an annual budget of less than the income of many top athletes, its president Craig Reedie (pictured right) said.

Lack of money could equally prove a handicap for a proposed inde-pendent testing authority, said Reedie, who also expressed support for glo-bal athletics chief Sebastian Coe and said WADA was in a state of “peace not war” with Coe’s troubled sport.

“I could do with a lot more money,” Reedie said in an exclusive interview with Newsweek published yesterday.

The Scot said governments decided their own contributions to

WADA’s budget, which were then matched by the International Olym-pic Committee (IOC).

“The total is not nearly enough,” he said. “WADA’s total annual budget of $30 million a year is exceeded by many athletes around the world who make more than that themselves in one year.”

Reedie said he was impressed with the support within sport and from governments for an independ-ent testing agency as proposed by IOC president Thomas Bach but the question of funding it needed to be addressed.

“Who pays the bill is a crucial question,” he said.

“This is one of the challenges as we investigate a new independent body that would remove the conflict of interest inherent with international federations who promote and police

their sports. “An independent testing body may or may not be a priority for governments, who see that their own domestic anti-doping programmes are just as important.”

Reedie said cycling was one sport that had successfully addressed the issue.

“I suspect the most successful body at the moment is the Interna-tional Cycling Union which clearly had problems, not specifically in any one country. But it has now decided to separate the testing and the handling of doping matters to an independent body.”

Former WADA president Dick Pound said last month that the IAAF, governing body of world athletics, needed to be completely restructured because of “corruption embedded in the organisation” under former pres-ident Lamine Diack.

Russia was banned from athlet-ics after an independent commission for WADA revealed widespread, state-sponsored doping in the country.

Reedie said the IAAF had handled the situation “in a reasonable man-ner” and that WADA maintained “an ongoing relationship with the IAAF as it carries out its normal anti-dop-ing duties”.

“WADA’s job is to protect clean athletes, so it’s a case of peace not war,” he added.

Asked if he had faith in Coe, who was elected last August, Reedie said: “On a personal basis, I have worked with Sebastian Coe for many years, particularly in the build-up to the successful delivery of the London Olympic Games, and I think he has the wide range of skills which will be necessary to achieve the transforma-tion that Dick Pound talked about.”

Willett wins Dubai Desert Classic in styleAFP

DUBAI: Overnight leader Danny Willett (pictured with the trophy) battled hard to hold on to his lead yesterday and got his reward with a final green, one shot win in the $2.5m Dubai Desert Classic.

At the Emirates Golf Club, the Englishman was finally caught up by the unrelenting chasing pack of Andy Sullivan and Spain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello on the 18th hole. But the world number 20 stepped up and made a pressure-packed 15-feet birdie putt to win his fourth European Tour title.

Willett, who had opened up a three-shot lead mid-way through the front nine, had to battle hard on the back nine. And as his rivals started making more birdies on the easier back nine, Willett had to grind out pars to stay ahead.

Sullivan, who had finished sec-ond in Dubai less than three months ago to Rory McIlroy in the DP World Tour Championship, made a birdie on the difficult par-3 15th hole, and then saved remarkable pars on the 16th and 17th holes after hitting errant drives.

But when it mattered the most - on the 18th hole - he hit a superb wedge third shot that spun back

several yards and left him with a curling 12-feet birdie putt to get to 18-under par. Sullivan did that to fin-ish with a four-under par 68, and was joined at 18-under par moments later by Cabrera-Bello.

The Spaniard birdied the 17th hole and hit two towering shots to set up an eagle putt from the back of the green.

However, his effort from 35 feet just slid past the hole, leaving him with a tap-in birdie.

Willett hit a good tee shot on the 18th, but rolled into the rough and had to lay up with his second.

The approach shot wasn’t the best and left him with a testing 15 feet downhill putt to win the tour-nament outright, but he nailed it right in the middle. Willett, who is expected to move into the top-15 of the world rankings for the first time in his career with the victory, said: “It’s always great to come out early in the season and win.

“Everything I’ve done has been really good this week, and mentally I’ve been as good as I have been for a long, long time. I stayed patient and let things happen. It’s very nice to know that I can dig deep and produce what I can when it is needed the most.

“You’d love to win by five or six every time you win, but when you win in that fashion, it does feel that little bit extra special.

“It means when the pressure is on I can produce the goods.” Sullivan felt he did not do enough in the middle of the round and said: “Fair play to Dan, holing that putt, that was a tough putt.

“I didn’t feel like I put him under enough pressure through the mid-point of the round. Had a lot of chances and didn’t quite take them.”

World number two Rory McIl-roy finished with a seven-under par 65 round, but that was good only for tied sixth place at 15-under par 273 alongside world number six Henrik Stenson (66).

And McIlroy, who could only make a par on the par-5 18th hole, said: “It was okay I guess. Sort of got it going today a little bit better and played the front nine better. Played nicely for the most part but disap-pointed about the 18th. I made a wrong decision off the tee by not hit-ting the driver. But all in all, it was a decent weekend and decent way to play the last 27 holes, anyway.

“The game feels in decent shape. Struggling with the driver a little bit, so just want to try and work on that.

“Got a week off to work on those things and get ready for LA in a cou-ple week’s time.”

Spain’s Alvaro Quiros and Korea’s Byeong Hun-An were tied fourth at 272 with identical rounds of seven-under par 65 each.

THE FINAL ROUND SCORES269 Danny Willett (ENG) 70-65-65-69

270 Andy Sullivan (ENG) 70-66-66-68, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (ESP) 67-67-67-69

272 Byeong-hun An (KOR) 71-67-69-65, Alvaro Quiros (ESP) 68-69-70-65

273 Rory McIlroy (NIR) 68-72-68-65, Henrik Stenson (SWE) 69-68-70-66

274 Alejandro Canizares (ESP) 71-69-68-66, Tyrrell Hatton (ENG) 70-70-68-66,

Thorbjorn Olesen (DEN) 72-64-70-68, Soren Kjeldsen (DEN) 70-70-66-68,

Chris Wood (ENG) 68-68-69-69, Scott Hend (AUS) 71-68-66-69, Hadyn Por-

teus (RSA) 72-66-66-70, Joost Luiten (NED) 69-67-67-71

275 Bernd Wiesberger (AUT) 68-71-69-67, Mikko Ilonen (FIN) -70-67-68

276 Gary Stal (FRA) 70-68-71-67, Ernie Els (RSA) 68-67-74-67, Bradley Dredge (WAL)

70-70-68-68, Johan Carlsson (SWE) 71-67-70-68

SPORT 33MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Qatargas chess event starts on Feb 11

The Peninsula

DOHA: The third edition of the Qatar-gas Chess Championship will be held from February 11 to 14, organisers said yesterday

The four-day event will be organised by the Qatar Chess Asso-ciation for children falling in the age bracket of 6 - 16 years, Mohammed Al Medaihki (pictured right), Gen-eral Secretary, QCA, said.

The event will be held at the Al Muntaza Model Primary School for Boys.

Qatargas is the title sponsor of this annual tournament which will be conducted as per the Swiss-sys-tem for rapid chess involving nine rounds with each round lasting 25 minutes and allowing ten seconds for every move.

Young chess enthusiasts residing in Qatar can register their names via the Qatar Chess Association’s website:

www.qatarchess.com, Al Medaihki said.

“Whoever wantsto feature in the event, they can go to the home page of our website, download the form, fill it up and bring it to us,” Al Medaihki said.

Commenting on Qatargas’ sup-port for the championship, Azam Abdulaziz Al Mannai, Qatargas Pub-lic Relations Manager said:“We are pleased to continue our support to the Qatar Chess Association in organising this tournament, which will provide an excellent opportunity for young chess enthusiasts in Qatar to com-pete against each other and hone their skills.”

Al Mannai said: “Our support to the game of chess is part of a

strategy we have adopted in promot-ing sporting activities that are gaining popularity in Qatar.

He added: “The aim of this strat-egy is to help in nurturing young talents in the country by creating opportunities for them to develop fur-ther, thereby contributing to achieving the Human Development goals of Qatar National Vision 2030.”

Al Medaihki thanked the spon-sors for their ‘overwhleming support’:

“We thank Qatargas for its con-tinued support to this championship which will help to further promote the game of Chess in Qatar partic-ularly amongst the youngsters,” Al Medaihki said.

“The past two editions of the tour-nament were a great success and we hope to attract even more participants this year.

“Chess, as we all know, has great benefits in terms of enhancing the mental skills of children and boosts their academic achievement.

“Qatargas’ support to this event underlines the Company’s commit-ment to the local community and its keenness in supporting the overall development of our young genera-tion,” Al Medaihki said.

He added that QCA has completed all preparations for making the tour-nament a grand success.

It is expected that the tourna-ment will witness strong competition among nearly 250 young players who will include this year those from sev-eral Gulf countries.

The tournament will be played from February 11 to 14 at Al Muntaza Model Primary School for Boys, says Mohammed Al Medaihki

Reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen playing chess with Aspire Academy student athletes and members of Academy staff in this file photo taken in Doha on December 31, 2015.

PRIZE MONEY AND TOURNAMENT SCHEDULEChampionship Awards

First place QR 5000

Second place QR 3,500

Third place QR 2500

Fourth place QR 150

Fifth place QR 1000

Sixth place QR 900

Seventh place QR 800

Eighth place QR 700

Ninth place QR 600

Tenth place QR 500

Awards for top Qatari boysFirst place QR 1500

Second Place QR 1000

Third place QR 500

Awards for top GirlsFirst place QR 1500

Second Place QR 1000

Third place QR 500

Tournament scheduleThursday, 02/11/2016, at 5pm the first

round + second round

Friday, 02/12/2016, at 3pm the third

round + fourth + fifth round

Saturday, 02/13/2016, at 3pm the sixth

round + seven o’clock + eighth round

Sunday, 02/14/2016, at 4:30pm the

ninth round + the end of the champion-

ship ceremony

Mildon sparkles with 25 points as Al Shamal hammer Al Arabi 74-61 The Peninsula

DOHA: Ambres Mildon dunked 25 points and managed 3 assists to power Al Shamal to 74-61 win over Al Arabi yesterday.

Avdic Faris chipped in with 19 points and 5 assists to complete an enjoyable outing for Al Shamal at Al Gharafa Indoor Hall yesterday.

Hachad Mohamed Kamal (15) Adam Khalid Abdalla Mohamed (11 points) were the other two players for Al Shamal to reach double figures.

Kosar Abdulqadir scored only 4 points and managed 2 assists.

For Al Arabi, Soyebo Temi Narcel-lius produced 26 points and 4 assists but in a losing cause.

O’Brien Todd Edward was the other Al Arabi player to reach the 20-mark. Edward scored 23 points.

Matalqah Osama Adel Mohamed scored 6 points for Al Arabi.

In another game yesterday, Al Khor crushed Al Ahli 107-87 thanks largely to Patrick Rembert who scored 41 points.

Rambert was well supported by Charles Abouo who scored 36 points and managed 7 assists.

Alen Hadzibegovic scored 16 points and had a tally of 5 assists.

For Al Ahli, Terrence Lav-alle Joyner Jr matched Rambert’s

performance by scoring 41 points and managing 2 assists.

Ndoye Elhadj Seydou (23 points and 3 assists) also played well for Al Ahli.

Mustafa Elsadiq (16 points and 3 assists) was the other player for Al Ahli to reach the double figures.

Also yesterday, Qatar Basket-ball Federation (QBF) yesterday announced the play-off schedule.

The top four sides on the QBL points standings will feature in the play-offs.

On February 16, 2016, the second-placed side will take on third-placed team while the top side will face the fourth-placed team on the same day, according to the schedule released by QBF yesterday.

In the return clashes, the fourth-placed side will take on the top side on February 20, 2016, when another game involving the third-placed side will face the second-placed team in QBL.

The final of the season will be played on March 4, 2016 while the semi-finals have been scheduled for February 27, 2016, QBF said in a state-ment yesterday.

QBL Games on Wednesday, Feb-ruary 10, 2016 at Al Gharafa Indoor Hall

5:30pm Qatar SC vs Al Gharafa7:30pm Al Rayyan vs Al Sadd

Action from Al Khor’s QBL clash against Al Ahli at Al Gharafa Indoor Hall in Doha yesterday. Al Khor won 107-87. RIGHT: A player of Al Shamal attempts a block against Al Arabi.

An Al Shamal player jumps to score against Al Arabi in their Qatar Basketball League (QBL) match at Al Gharafa Indoor Hall in Doha yesterday. Al Shamal won 74-61.

FED CUP WORLD GROUP QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS

1-Czech Republic bt Romania 3- 2

Switzerland bt 4-Germany 3- 2

France bt 3-Italy 4- 1

Netherlands bt 2-Russia 3- 1

Russia, Italy crash; Swiss reach semisAFP

PARIS: Russia and Italy, who have won eight of the last 12 Fed Cup titles, crashed out of this year’s tournament yesterday with four-time winners Czech Republic fighting a rearguard action to avoid joining them at the exit.

Russia, the champions in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008, suffered an embarrassing 3-1 defeat to the Neth-erlands in Moscow.

Italy, who were title winners in 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2013, were also dumped out in the first round, going down 4-1 to France in Marseille.

But Switzerland, who have yet to win the Fed Cup, made the semi-finals with a thrilling 3-2 win over Germany in Leipzig thanks to teenager Belinda Bencic and Mar-tina Hingis clinching the decisive doubles.

While the Netherlands and 2003 champions France meet in one semi-final in April, the Swiss will tackle either the Czechs or Romania in the other.

The Dutch, without a single player in the top 100, made the semi-finals for the first time since 1997 after Kiki Bertens defeated two-time Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-4.

Kuznetsova, the world 17, had lost a four-hour marathon against Richel Hogenkamp on Saturday in the longest singles match ever played at a Fed Cup.

The 24-year-old Bertens, ranked at 106, took her Fed Cup singles record to 13 wins and one loss after the Dutch, 2-0 up overnight, claimed a famous win against a Russian team who had world number six Maria Sharapova warming the bench all weekend.

“We are now among the last four countries in the Fed Cup, so it’s just unbelievable,” said Bertens.

Russia captain Anastasia Myskina said she wasn’t tempted to risk Sharapova, who won both sin-gles rubbers in the country’s 2015

final loss to the Czech Republic. “No, she had a problem with her left arm and that wasn’t good. We decided on Thursday that she wouldn’t play,” said Myskina.

In Marseille, Caroline Garcia defeated Camila Giorgi 6-3, 6-4 to put France into the semi-finals for the second year running.

Earlier, Kristina Mladenovic saw off Sara Errani 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 to put the French 2-1 ahead after the two nations had split the opening singles on Saturday.

In Leipzig, 18-year-old Bencic won her third point of the weekend when she teamed up with 35-year-old Hingis to beat Andrea Petkovic and Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-3, 6-2 in the deciding doubles.

Standing 1-1 overnight, Bencic downed Australian Open cham-pion Angelique Kerber 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 before Annika Beck celebrated her maiden singles appearance by see-ing off Timea Bacsinszky 7-5, 6-4 to make the tie 2-2.

The Czech Republic, meanwhile, recent champions in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015, were taken to a deciding doubles in Cluj by Romania.

Simona Halep put Romania 2-1 up after battling past two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 before the impressive Karolina Pliskova levelled the tie with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over Mon-ica Niculescu.

Meanwhile in Montpellier, France, Richard Gasquet won a 13th career singles title by beating Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-5 6-4 in the Open Sud de France final yesterday.

It was Gasquet’s third title from four straight finals at the ATP World Tour 250 indoor tournament.

Gasquet is now 13-12 in ATP World Tour finals, having last clinched a trophy in May 2015 at Estoril (d. Kyrgios).

The 29 year old earned 250 Emirates ATP Rankings points for his efforts.

The World No. 10 went on to complete his fourth win of 2016 in one hour and 48 minutes.

SPORT34 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

Shah gets banned for three months

AFP

DUBAI: Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah has been banned for three months after pleading guilty for a failed dope test last year, the Inter-national Cricket Council (ICC) said yesterday.

“Shah has been suspended from all cricket-related activities for three months after pleading guilty to breaching Article 2.1 of the ICC Anti-Doping Code,” the ICC announced in a statement.

“Shah had provided a urine sample as part of the ICC’s random in-competition testing programme after the conclusion of the one-day international between England and Pakistan in Abu Dhabi, UAE on 13 November 2015.

“His sample was subsequently tested and found to contain chlo-rtalidone. This is classified as a “Specified Substance” under World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List and is prohibited both in-competition and out-of-competition.”

Shah has emerged as a match-winner for Pakistan in Tests after ace spinner Saeed Ajmal lost form due to having to remodel an illegal bowl-ing action.

“Shah admitted the violation and a three-month suspension has been imposed, backdated to 27 December 2015, the day when he was provision-ally suspended. Shah will, therefore, be eligible to return to cricket on 27 March 2016.”

The ICC said it accepted that the doping offence had been inadvert-ent as the medication had been taken “for therapeutic reasons, specifically to treat his blood pressure.

“He was able to satisfy the ICC through evidence and submissions prepared on his behalf by the Paki-stan Cricket Board (PCB) that he had no intention to enhance his sporting performance or to mask the use of another performance enhancing substance.

“He had, instead, mistakenly taken his wife’s blood pressure medication that was identical in appearance to his own but which contained the prohibited substance chlortalidone.”

The head of the Pakistan Cricket Board’s medical panel, Sohail Salim, said he was satisfied with the ICC decision.

“We are happy that we made a genuine reply in Shah’s case,” Salim said.

“At the time of Shah’s suspension a lot of former cricketers, experts and doctors were giving their opinions without any knowledge and that was disturbing.”

Under anti-doping rules Shah could have been hit with a two to four year ban.

Shah said he was delighted at the news.

“I am delighted and thankful to Almighty,” Shah said.

“I was attending a religious con-gregation and was waiting for this

news with bated breath.“The most difficult phase of my

life is over now,” said Shah. “I have been bowling in the nets

so as soon as I am eligible to play I will get into the groove,” said the spinner.

“The target, of course is to be part of Pakistan’s tour of England where my team will need me,” said Shah of Pakistan’s tour where they play four Tests, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 starting in July.

Shah has 76 wickets in 12 Tests. His 12 wickets helped Pakistan beat Australia 2-0 in 2014 and took 25 in 2-1 win over Sri Lanka last year.

Pakistani leg-spinner guilty of breaching Article 2.1 of the ICC Anti-Doping Code

Pakistani leg-spinner Yasir Shah

U-19 World Cup: Sri Lanka

book India semi-final IANS

MIRPUR: Opener Avishka Fern-ando struck a fluent 95 after Wanidu Hasanranga grabbed three wick-ets as Sri Lanka defeated England by six wickets in the quarter-final match yesterday and thus set up a semi-final clash against India in the Under-19 cricket World Cup.

Fernando hit 11 boundaries and one six as Sri Lanka dismissed Eng-land for 184 in 49.2 overs and then surpassed the modest target scoring 186 in 35.4 overs. Leg-spinner Has-anranga grabbed three wickets for the island nation.

Sri Lanka will take on India in the first semi-final in Mirpur tomor-row. The second semi-final on Thursday will feature hosts Bang-ladesh against the winner of today’s Pakistan-West Indies match.

This is only the third time Lanka have reached the semi-final of this tournament since its inception in 1988.

In the home event in 2000, they reached the final where they lost to Mohammad Kaif-captained India, while in 2010 in New Zealand, Sri Lanka reached the last four and fin-ished in fourth position.

Callum Taylor top-scored with 42 after England won the toss and elected to bat, but the rest of the bat-ting fell apart against the sustained pressure applied by the Lankan bowlers.

Leg-spinner Hasaranga fin-ished with three wickets for 34 runs after seamer Asitha Fernando had wrecked the start with two dismissals.

In reply, Sri Lanka made a breezy start racing to 51 for no loss in eight overs before the lunch break, with Fernando contributing 35 of those runs.

Kaveen Bandara helped Fern-ando put on 76 for the first wicket by the 14th over when he was run out for 22.

Fernando was about to steer his team towards an emphatic win before he was caught behind off Saqib Mahmood when just 14 runs were needed for victory in 17 overs.

Skipper Charith Asalanka, who put on 69 for the third wicket with Fernando, fell for 34 soon after, but Sri Lanka cruised home easily.

Brief Scores: England 184 in 49.2 overs (Callum Taylor 42; Wanidu Hasaranga 3-34, Asitha Fernando 2-16) vs Sri Lanka 186-4 in 35.4 overs (Avishka Fernando 95).

Steyn faces down Black Mamba AFP

JOHANNESBURG: When one of the world’s most feared fast bowl-ers came face to face with one of the planet’s deadliest snakes, there was only one winner and South Africa’s Dale Steyn (pictured) was happy to concede defeat.

Steyn, the spearhead of the South African bowling attack, posted a video on his Instagram account showing him and a friend thinking they were coming to the aid of a stricken, harmless Brown House snake on an isolated road in the Kruger National Park.

On closer inspection, the 32-year-old Steyn then realised he was just inches away from a deadly Black Mamba.

“So this poor guy was hit by a car, we stopped to move him out the road thinking it was a brown house snake,” Steyn wrote in a message alongside the brief footage.

“Got a little too close and then realised what we were actually dealing with! Mr Black Mamba!

“This post is not to show how brave we were, it’s to show that if you don’t know what you deal-ing with then best you leave it alone! Lesson learnt! #wildouthere #blackmamba.”

Steyn, the veteran of 82 Tests and 112 one-day internationals, is currently sitting out the limited overs series against England.

Netherlands look to revive past success AFP

AMSTERDAM: The Nether-lands on Saturday named a 15-man squad for the 2016 World Twenty20 tournament to be played in India, looking to rekindle the triumphs of 2009 and 2014 when they shocked England.

Key to their hopes will be all-rounder Logan van Beek who took 3-9 from two overs when the Dutch beat England by 45 runs in Chittagong two years ago.

That win followed their famous four-wicket triumph over the Eng-lish at Lord’s in the 2009 World Twenty20.

“This group has shown an immense amount of commitment to what we are trying to achieve on the field of play,” said coach Anton Roux of a squad captained by Peter Borren.

Van Beek, who plays his club cricket at Canterbury in New Zea-land, has 129 runs at a strike-rate of 107.5 and 40 wickets from 45 Twenty20 games.

The Netherlands reached the second stage Super 10s of the World Twenty20 in Bangla-desh in 2014, chasing down 190 in under 14 overs to beat Ireland and secure their place amongst the elite nations of the game.

This time around, the Dutch are drawn in Group A, along with Bangladesh, Ireland and Oman.

If they finish first in the group, they will join Group two for the Super 10s stage, along with India, Australia, New Zealand and Pakistan.

They begin their campaign against Bangladesh (March 9), followed by games against Oman (March 11) and Ireland (March 13), all to be played in Dharamsala.

Australia’s Richardson returning home ahead of final ODI

Reuters

WELLINGTON: Australia pace bowler is to return home for fur-ther examination on a back injury and has been replaced by Joel Paris in the squad for their final One Day match against New Zealand in Ham-ilton today.

Richardson, 24, did not play in Australia’s four-wicket victory in the second match in Wellington on Saturday.

“Kane Richardson’s back pain hasn’t subsided sufficiently to take part in the final ODI in Hamilton,” a Cricket Australia spokesperson told Australian reporters in Wellington yesterday.

“He will return home today for further investigation into the issue and Joel Paris will join the squad in Auckland this afternoon as cover.”

Paris has just finished playing a Sheffield Shield match for Western Australia against New South Wales in New Zealand.

Richardson joins a long list of injured Australian pace bowlers with

Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins both long-term injury concerns.

Nathan Coulter-Nile is also side-lined, though James Pattinson, who has been complaining of shin sore-ness, has joined up with the test squad in New Zealand.

Opening batsman Aaron Finch and all-rounder James Faulkner are suffering from hamstring inju-ries. Australia’s bowlers limited New Zealand to 281-9 in the second match at Wellington, with only a late flurry from Mitchell Santner and Adam Milne taking the hosts to a compet-itive total.

While Mitchell Marsh and John Hastings got Australia home, a batting collapse should be of some concern after captain Steve Smith, George Bai-ley and Glenn Maxwell all failed for the second successive game.

Smith has scored 20 runs in two innings, while Bailey has two, and was bowled for a golden duck on Sat-urday, with Maxwell scoring a total of six.

Another concern for Australia has been their inability to halt New Zea-land’s bowlers when they have their tails up.

In the first game at Eden Park they slumped to 41-6 inside nine overs, while on Saturday they lost four wickets for 22 runs after a cen-tury stand between Usman Khawaja and David Warner.

They also lost two wickets for six later in the innings, giving New Zea-land a whiff of an unlikely victory

before Marsh (69 not out) and Hast-ings (48 not out) guided the tourists to victory.

Australia have not lost a bilat-eral One Day series since they went to India in October 2013, while New Zealand are seeking to retain the Chappell-Hadlee trophy at Seddon Park.

Kane Richardson of Australia bowls during the first One-Day-International cricket match against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland in this February 3, 2016 file picture.

Paris replaces RichardsonAFP

SYDNEY: Paceman Kane Rich-ardson has been ruled out of Australia’s final One-Day-Inter-national against New Zealand with back trouble and will be replaced by Joel Paris, Cricket Australia said yesterday. Richardson was a late withdrawal from Saturday’s second ODI and CA said he would return home “for further investi-gation into the issue”.

Paris had been with Western Australia’s Sheffield Shield squad in Lincoln, New Zealand, where he took four wickets for 37 in the drawn match against New South Wales. He made his ODI debut in this season’s ODI series against India. Richardson faces an anx-ious wait to determine the extent of his back injury with Australia set to announce their World T20 squad later this week.

Santner a doubt for final ODI

Reuters

WELLINGTON: New Zealand all-rounder Mitchell Santner is in doubt for the final One-Day-International against Australia in Hamilton today after complaining of a sore right foot following the second game in Wel-lington.

The 24-year-old Santner was New Zealand’s best player in Aus-tralia’s four-wicket victory, that levelled the three-match series, scoring 45 not out and marshalling

his side to 281-9 and then taking 3-47 with his left-arm spin. Leg spin-ner Ish Sodhi has been brought into the squad as precautionary cover, should Santner not be fit enough to play at his home ground at Seddon Park. A decision on Santner’s fit-ness would be made just before the match, New Zealand Cricket said in a statement on Sunday.

Santner, who only made his international debut last year, is quickly impressing as an automatic selection in all formats of the game with his fluid batting and handy left-arm spin.

Agencies

PUNE: Wicketkeeper-batsman Niro-shan Dickwella has been included in Sri Lanka’s squad as replacement for veteran batsman Tillakara-tne Dilshan, who was ruled out of tomorrow’s first T20 against India with a hand injury.

Dilshan did not travel with the team to India on Saturday. He will instead spend a few days recovering from injury at home, before joining the side mid-series. He is expected to be available for the second match,

in Ranchi, on Friday. This injury is an aggravation of an old complaint for Dilshan, who sustained it while attempting a catch during the semi-final of the recently-concluded Super T20 Provincial Tournament. He did not play in the final, but the injury is not thought to be serious. He is scheduled to resume training in the nets on Monday.

Dickwella earned his call-up fol-lowing a good run in the Sri Lankan Super T20 tournament, where he struck 189 runs in six innings, with a strike rate of 173. He has played four Tests and one ODI for Sri Lanka, but is uncapped in the shortest format.

Dickwella replaces injured Dilshan

AFP

SAN FRANCISCO: Cam Newton was crowned the National Football League’s Most Valuable Player on Saturday as the Carolina Panthers quarterback warmed up for the Super Bowl with two honours on the sport’s annual awards night.

Newton, who had been the runa-way favourite to scoop the MVP award after a record-breaking season which saw him pass for 35 touchdowns and rush for 10 more, also won the offen-sive player of the year award.

The 26-year-old signal-caller’s father Cecil was on hand to collect the honors on behalf of his son before a star-studded audience at the Bill Gra-ham Civic Auditorium in downtown San Francisco.

Newton’s rivals for the MVP award were New England Patriots veteran Tom Brady and Arizona Car-dinals quarterback Carson Palmer.

Television comedian Conan O’Brien launched the evening with a jab at the movie industry’s Acad-emy Awards, which has been reeling from accusations of institutional rac-ism after no black actor received a nomination.

“Winning an NFL honor is like winning an Oscar - if the Oscars nominated black people,” O’Brien quipped. There was more glory for Carolina Panthers with head coach Ron Rivera winning the coach of the year award.

Rivera masterminded a 17-1 cam-paign for the Panthers to guide them into yesterday’s Super Bowl against the Denver Broncos.

Houston Texans star JJ Watt was named Defensive Player of the Year while Jameis Winston of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was named Rookie of the Year. Like Newton, Rivera did not attend the ceremony as he pre-pares his team to face Denver.

Meanwhile the awards saw con-firmation of the latest batch of players to be admitted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The eight-strong class of 2016 was headed by Green Bay Pack-ers legend Brett Favre, the three-time MVP winner who held the all-time passing yardage record until it was surpassed by Peyton Manning this season. There was also a poignant

confirmation for late Oakland Raid-ers quarterback Ken Stabler, who died of colon cancer last July.

Stabler’s entry came just days after researchers revealed the man known as “The Snake” during flam-boyant playing career in the 1970s had been suffering from the brain

disease chronic traumatic enceph-alopathy (CTE) before his death.

Other NFL figures to enter the Hall of Fame included owner Edward DeBartolo, their coach Tony Dungy, defensive end Kevin Greene, wide receiver Marvin Harrison, tackle Orlando Pace and guard Richard

Anthony “Dick” Stanfel. However there was no place for the often polarizing figure of Terrell Owens, a six-time Pro Bowl selection who played 15 seasons in the NFL which included stints at the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles and Dal-las Cowboys.

SPORT 35MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

NFL HONOURS SHOW

Newton becomes season’s MVP as Favre inducted into Hall of FameNewton the runaway favourite to scoop the MVP award after a record-breaking NFL season

Warriors rally to beat Thunder AFP

LOS ANGELES: Klay Thompson rattled in a clutch three pointer with 1:40 left as the Golden State Warriors won their ninth straight with a 116-108 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday.

The Thunder made Golden State work for the victory as the Warriors led by 20 points at one stage then had to come-from-behind to erase a nine-point Oklahoma City lead.

Golden State improved to 46-4 and tie the 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers for the best 50-game start in league history.

“This was a playoff-like atmos-phere,” said Warriors Stephen Curry, who scored a team-high 26 points.

“The intensity, the adrenaline down the stretch that is what you expect in a playoff game.”

The mighty Warriors are off to a historic start which has not only bas-ketball fans, but also football fans in the San Francisco area buzzing this weekend.

The only other hotter ticket in town than one of the 19,600 seats at Oracle arena is one for yesterday’s Super Bowl between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers.

“It is nice to play a great team like that in an atmosphere like this,” Curry said.

Guard Curry had a rare off night from beyond the arc, missing seven-of-eight three-pointers. He made 10-of-25 shots overall, dished out 10 assists and scored or assisted on

his team’s final 11 points. “He strug-gled but he still found a way, like all MVPs do, to take over at the end of the game and make sure we took care of business,” said assistant coach Luke Walton.

Thompson finished with 18 points on eight-of-15 shooting but was just one-of-six on three-pointers.

His lone three pointer was key however as it gave Golden State a 110-104 lead and it came just 19 sec-onds after Thunder star Kevin Durant missed a potential game-tying three pointer. Durant led the Thunder with 40 points and point guard Russell Westbrook added 27. Westbrook also had 12 assists. Before Thompson’s clutch three-pointer, Oklahoma City’s Enes Kanter tied the game at 104-104 with 3:25 but the Warriors finished with a 12-4 surge to earn their 41st straight home victory. Forward Har-rison Barnes added 19 points for Golden State while reserves Mar-reese Speights added 15 and Shaun Livingston had 10.

Guard Tony Parker drained a pair of clutch baskets down the stretch and San Antonio turned up its defense in the last four minutes as the Spurs outlasted the Los Angeles Lakers 106-102 to remain unbeaten at home.

The Spurs survived a superb performance by Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who is retiring after 20 sea-sons in the NBA.

Bryant scored 16 of his 25 points in the third period to allow the Lak-ers to claw their way back into the

contest. Bryant got off to another slow start, scoring just four points on two-of-10 shooting in the first 15 minutes.

LaMarcus Aldridge scored 26 points for the Spurs, who improved to 28-0 at the AT&T Center this sea-son, extending their record for the best home start ever by a Western Conference team. Forward Chan-dler Parsons scored a game-high 26 points and the Dallas Mavericks beat the Memphis Grizzlies 114-110 in overtime at FedExForum

Parsons, who scored a combined 18 points in his last two games, made 10-of-15 from the floor and five-of-eight from three-point range.

He hit two threes in the overtime and also finished with eight rebounds and four assists as the Mavericks improved to 29-25 and snapped a three-game losing skid.

Guard Deron Williams finished with a double-double for Dallas with 22 points and 11 assists, and forward Dirk Nowitzki scored 18 points with seven rebounds.

Celebrate and win with Save the Dream on NSD The Peninsula

DOHA: Save the Dream, a glo-bal programme with leading agency Magnum Photos using images to promote sport val-ues, has launched a new social media competition for sports fans in Qatar to celebrate and win on National Sport Day.

As part of Save the Dream’s commitment to empowering youth through the values of sport, the photo contest - which will

take place on all Save the Dream social media platforms - will give sports fans across the country the opportunity to contribute with their creativity to promote and preserve the values sport.

Save the Dream, which started two years ago, will award best photos with two tickets to the forthcoming Qatar Moto GP, taking place at Losail Interna-tional Circuit from March 17 to 20 and will promote these images through its global platforms.

For a chance to win, fans should tweet or facebook photos

having fun and playing sport on National Sport Day using the hashtag #savethedream

Commenting on the compe-tition, Massimiliano Montanari, Executive Director of Save the Dream, said: “Save the Dream was founded to inspire hope and empower young people around the world through sport and social media has provided the younger generation with an ideal platform to engage with other young people around the world and share their experiences and the lessons they learn through sport.

“As a major national mile-stone for sport in Qatar, National Sport Day provides an important opportunity to inspire and edu-cate young people about how to lead a healthy lifestyle as well as teaching them about the positive values and lessons that sport can teach.

“This is why Save the Dream is calling on young people attending the National Sport Day in Qatar to capture moments of human-ity and friendship around sport and share their photos with Save the Dream so we can inspire other

young people around the world to play sport.”

Established by the Interna-tional Centre for Sport Security in partnership with the Qatar Olym-pic Committee and supported by technology partner Ooredoo, Save the Dream implements and inspires actions to empower youth through sport, while promoting inter-cultural dialogue and social innovation through the power of its values. Fans can obtain more information on http://www.save-the-dream.org/ or on Facebook or Twitter.

Tweet or facebook photos having fun and playing sport on NSD using the hashtag #savethedream to stand a chance to win

Panthers quarterback Cam Newton celebrates during the NFC Championship football game against the Arizona Cardinals in Charlotte, North Carolina, in this January 24 file photo. Newton was named the National Football League’s Most Valuable Player on Saturday at the NFL Honors show.

NBA Results Portland 96 Houston 79

Charlotte 108 Washington 104

Indiana 112 Detroit 104

Cleveland 99 New Orleans 84

Philadelphia 103 Brooklyn 98

Dallas 114 Memphis 110 (Ot)

Minnesota 112 Chicago 105

San Antonio 106 LA Lakers 102

Utah 98 Phoenix 89

Golden State 116 Oklahoma City 108

Russell Westbrook (right) of the Oklahoma City Thunder goes up to shoot over Marreese Speights of the Golden State Warriors during their NBA basketball game at ORACLE Arena on Saturday in Oakland, California.

Agencies

MONTREAL: Tomas Plekanec scored a goal and added three assists to lift the Montreal Cana-diens to a 5-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers at the Bell Cen-tre on Saturday.

Brendan Gallagher, Lars Eller, P.K. Subban and Tom Gilbert also scored for Montreal (25-24-4), who snapped a four-game losing streak.

Rangers 3, Flyers 2 (shootout)In a feisty game that featured

48 penalty minutes, the New York Rangers forced overtime in the final seconds of regulation before stealing a 3-2 shoot-out win over the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Centre. Mats Zuccarello and centre Derek Stepan scored in the shootout to win it.

Capitals 3, Devils 2 (shoot-out)

Alex Ovechkin scored the deciding goal in a shoot-out to give the Washington Capitals a 3-2 win over the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Centre. Adam Hen-rique and Joseph Blandisi scored third-period goals to help the Dev-ils erase a 1-0 deficit.

Red Wings 5, Islanders 1Dylan Larkin and Tomas Tatar

each had a goal and an assist to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-1 win over the New York Islanders at Joe Louis Arena.

Tomas Jurco, Kyle Quincey and Mike Green also scored for Detroit, who broke a five-game home los-ing streak. The Red Wings’ last win at Joe Louis Arena came on December 20 last year.

Penguins 3, Panthers 2 (overtime)

The Pittsburgh Penguins got an overtime goal by Kris Letang with 3:33 left to snap the Florida Panthers’ five-game win streak, rallying for a 3-2 win at the BB&T Centre. Sidney Crosby got the assist and finished with three points, including the 900th of his career. Letang also had three points.

Senators 6, Maple Leafs 1The Ottawa Senators snapped

a three-game losing streak with a 6-1 thumping of the Toronto Maple Leafs at Canadian Tire Centre.

Curtis Lazar led the Senators with two goals. Zack Smith, Mika Zibanejad, Bobby Ryan and Mark Stone had the others.

Bruins 2, Sabres 1 (overtime)Brad Marchand scored on a

penalty shot in overtime to give the Boston Bruins a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres at TD Garden.

The Bruins left winger flipped a backhand shot over Buffalo goal-tender Robin Lehner to give Boston a second straight win over their Atlantic Division opponents.

NHL Results Washington 3 New Jersey 2 (So)

NY Rangers 3 Philadelphia 2 (So)

Montreal 5 Edmonton 1

Detroit 5 NY Islanders 1

Boston 2 Buffalo 1 (Ot)

Ottawa 6 Toronto 1

Pittsburgh 3 Florida 2 (Ot)

St. Louis 4 Minnesota 1

Nashville 6 San Jose 2

Chicago 5 Dallas 1

Winnipeg 4 Colorado 2

Calgary 4 Vancouver 1

Montreal Canadiens in easy win

NBA ROUND UP

The Peninsula

DOHA: The winner of Qatar Total Open 2015, world No. 10 Lucie Safarova jetted off for Doha yesterday.

The Czech tennis diva takes Doha early this year to ensure herself a proper training series ahead of Qatar Total Open 2016 which will be held from February 21 to 27. She has recently returned to physical train-ing after her long story with a bacterial infection that enforced her to bypassing many tournaments includ-ing the Australian Open.

In 2015, she won the Australian Open and French Open doubles titles partner-ing Bethanie Mattek-Sands and also could clinch the title of Qatar Total Open beating the Belarusian Star Victori Azarenka in the final 6-4, 6-3.

She has won six WTA tour singles titles, six dou-bles titles and reached the quarterfinals of the 2007 Australian Open, upsetting defending champion Amélie Mauresmo en route.

The 29-year-old star will show up at Khalifa Complex this afternoon to start her first training session aim-ing to be fully fit to meet the star studded field during the Qatar Total Open 2016.

79th AIPS Congress in Doha

36 MONDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2016

The International Sports Press Association (AIPS) Executive Committee members pose for a photograph on the opening day of the 79th AIPS Congress in Doha yesterday. The Congress will conclude on Thursday. Picture by: Adham Elkawas

TOP: The Executive Committee Meeting of the 79th AIPS Congress in progress at the Sheraton Hotel in Doha, yesterday. AT LEFT: AIPS President Gianni Merlo (left) and Interim Secretary General Evelyn Watta during the Executive Committee Meeting at the 79th AIPS Congress in Doha yesterday.

Safarova at Khalifa Complex today

Qatar Total Open defending champion

Lucie Safarova

Saudi’s Al Ahli show the exit to PSG

The Peninsula

DOHA: Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli caused the upset of the tournament so far, delivering a convincing 3-0 victory against Paris Saint-Germain, caus-ing the reigning champions to drop out of Al Kass 2016 at the group stage yesterday.

PSG came into the game know-ing that only a victory could preserve their chances of reaching the knock-out stage, and they started the brighter of the two sides. But the young Saudis had keeper Bakr Eissa to thank for keeping PSG scoreless. The Parisians kept Al Ahli’s attacking threat to a minimum in the opening stages and, on 12 minutes, almost took the lead when Thimoty Weah’s long-range effort flew narrowly over.

In the early stages though, it seemed like an upset is highly unlikely, as PSG’s imposing team made life difficult for Al Ahli, who struggled to retain possession and build chances.

As the second half began, the Royals continued to stick to their game plan. Again content to allow PSG to shoot from distance, they also looked to play the ball early from midfield for their pacey wing-ers and attackers to run on to, thereby bypassing the physically dominant Paris midfield. And, on the 49th minute, the tactic paid off hand-somely as the Saudis took the lead.

Captain Hani Al Sibyani hit a high, first-time cross from wide on the left that looked to be going over until, at the last second, the ball dipped goalwards. Chesneau took desperate evasive action, clawing the ball out from under the crossbar, but directly into the path of the onrushing

Ibrahim Al Sahhari, who gratefully side-footed home to prompt scenes of delirium on the Saudi bench.

As the game approached the hour mark, the Parisians attacked in num-bers, but time and again were unable to apply the finishing touch to their powerful build-up play. On the 65th minute, Al Ahli relieved the pressure on their defence when Al Sahhari ran with the ball from deep. The goal-scorer came under pressure as he bore down on goal, and chose to pass when a shot may have been a bet-ter option.

A minute later Eissa was again the Saudi hero as he somehow man-aged to touch a powerful, point-blank

header from Guclu onto the bar, when a goal seemed inevitable. The game had become a hugely entertaining end-to-end spectacle, and Al Sahhari once again ran from his own half and rampaged down the right before find-ing the unmarked Faras Al Ghamdi near the penalty spot.

Instead of shooting, he attempted to round Chesneau, who came out and smothered at the midfielder’s feet. On the 74th minute, Al Ghamdi made amends for his earlier mistake by finishing coolly after collect-ing a superb first-time pass from Al Zaqarta.

Unbelievably, the rampant Saudis added a third just two minutes later. This time the roles were reversed as Al Ghamditurned supplier, crossing smartly for Al Zaqarta to power a stu-pendous diving header home.

Most Valuable Player of the match, Al Ahli’s goalkeeper Bakr Eissa (centre) makes an excellent save during their Al Kass 2016 International Cup game against PSG, played at Aspire Zone yesterday.

Most Valuable Player Al Ahli’s goalkeeper Bakr Eissa excels against PSG

Reysol move into knock-out phase with 2-1 win

Celtic safe despite Estudiantes effort The Peninsula

DOHA: A determined Celtic side narrowly prevailed against Estudi-antes De La Plata in an action-filled game on the third day of the Al Kass 2016 International Cup where the boys from Scotland tasted a 2-1 win over the Argentinians to keep their hopes of reaching the knockout stages alive at Aspire Zone yesterday.

It was the Argentines who ini-tially looked most dangerous, with their muscular centre forward Mariano Merli testing the Scot-tish backline with some powerful running.

With few chances being created in the initial stage, the game took a different look after 18 minutes of play when Javier Romero’s high ball from deep on the left evaded the entire Celtic defence, and Franco Avila made no mistake in hammering the ball high into the net.

With the first period coming to an end, Ivan Erquiaga sprinted clear from the right and smacked a low shot against the left-hand post, with McAdams beaten. The keeper could then only parry Avila’s effort from the rebound and Erquiaga tapped home, but he had somehow strayed

into an offside position. The Estu-diantes keeper was less fortunate several minutes later, however, as Celtic surged forward and equalised. Daniel set off on a determined run before supplying Ciaran Diver wide on the left.

His teasing cross was parried by Cordoba straight into the path of Kei-ran Campbell, who fired home from close range.

‘The Bhoys’ , buoyed by the lev-eller, instantly appeared to grow in confidence and, as a finely bal-anced game entered the last quarter, they went looking for a second goal. It arrived on the 77 minute when substitute Christian Antoniazzi embarked on a determined run that took him into the opposition area before feeding Johnston.

His smart, short pass teed up Man-of-the-Match Kerr McIlroy eight yards out, and the dynamic midfielder made no mistake, smash-ing a low drive through the legs of Cordoba to give Celtic a lead that had seemed unlikely for long periods of the game.

With three minutes of added time awarded, Estudiantes piled for-ward in search of an equaliser, but Celtic’s strong organisational skills came to the fore to keep their oppo-nents at bay.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Kashiwa Reysol withstood a stern examination from their West-ern European counterparts Benfica to record a dramatic win of 2 goals to 1 at Aspire Zone late on Saturday.

The Japanese side began the game, pressing relentlessly against a Benfica side who had given their all to salvage a 2-2 draw against Aspire Football Dreams the previous day.

Portuguese manager Luis Araujo made changes to his backline, with Jorge Silva switching from left back

to centre back in place of the benched Goncarlo Loureiro.

Still, the Benfica defence strug-gled to contain their opponents and, on the 14th minute Reysol took the lead in stunning fashion. Ryosuko Asakura was set free down the left and beat his man before cutting a ris-ing ball back to Taiyo Namazuta, who lashed a spectacular first-time vol-ley home.

Reysol had dominated the early stages but their early superiority was put into a test when Takuto Kato was given a straight red card for upend-ing Tiago Dantas on the edge of the

box which seemed harsh on Reysol.On the 25th minute, a loose pass

from Kenta Tsutsumi was intercepted by Dantas who passed it on to Pedro Correia who took a touch before lash-ing a low shot to level the score at 1-1 as the balance of the game seemed shifted after the first Red Card of the tournament

On the 70th minute, a rare attack from the Japanese brought a cor-ner on the left. Namazuta crossed low and hard, captain So Nakagawa dummied at the near post, and Riku Ochiai battered the ball home from point blank range.

FOOTBALL: AL KASS INTERNATIONAL CUP